Bygones Reclaimed
by JTLewis
Summary: Ancient powers are released and siblings become mortal enemies. A fight that has been going on for centuries is nearing its end. What was once forgotten will rise from the depths of nothing and be reborn. The chase is on. Harry teams up with a most unlikely character and together they will have to overcome a slew of different obstacles and enemies.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction using characters, locations and situations from the world of Harry Potter which is trademarked by J. K. Rowling. Harry Potter and any other character appearing in the original story is the sole property of J. K. Rowling and her partners and I do not claim any ownership over them. This story is mainly intended for my own entertainment and I do not gain any monetary profit from it.

* * *

Bygones Reclaimed

Prologue

-o-

Alone, undisturbed and covered in complete darkness, nineteen lights shone ever so softly. The soft light pierced the thick darkness around them. They were slowly pulsing brighter and brighter, as if in anticipation.

The silence around them was deafening and any sound, no matter how small and insignificant, would echo like an explosion. Yet no sound had echoed through these halls since that faithful day when they were sealed centuries ago.

Now though, like a heartbeat, faint sounds had been resonating through the walls for some time. Like drums in the distance, the sounds got progressively louder the closer they got. Every time there was a sound the lights seemed to pulse and the closer the sounds got the brighter the lights grew.

Would something finally breach these walls? Would there once again be life wandering these abandoned halls?

-.-.-.-

_A spark is all it takes…_

_-.-.-.-_

-o-

"Master, we're almost through. I estimate within the hour," said the groveling mass of dark robes on the ground.

Red eyes moved from the pages of a book to the speaking heap on the floor. They were indifferent and calculating. The owner of the eyes smirked, a smirk that made the heap quiver in fear.

"Excellent," the red eyed man said. "We leave at once, Wormtail."

"Y-yes master," Wormtail whimpered.

-o-

Two cracks indicated the arrival of two wizards apparating in. Instantly the camp became quiet and every Death Eaters in sight quickly approached the two arrivals and bowed. The sun was about to set and the dark robes the wizards wore made it increasingly difficult to see them clearly. None of them were wearing masks so their white faces were a stark contrast in the darkness.

"My Lord, we didn't expect you until morning. My apologies for not preparing the camp," one of the Death Eaters said, his head still bowed.

"Don't worry Rodolphus, I was… _eager_… to see your progress for myself," responded the Dark Lord. He ignored all other Death Eaters and started to walk towards a small cave entrance located at the north side of the camp. Rodolphus fell in pace a few steps behind.

"How far do we have left?" asked the Dark Lord.

"Not far, my Lord. Another hour at the most," answered Rodolphus.

The Dark Lord nodded. "I think we can speed that up a bit, don't you?" he asked.

"Yes my Lord. I'll order them to dig faster," said Rodolphus.

"No need. I will personally oversee this last bit," the Dark Lord said. "This is a historic moment after all and we can't leave it in the hands of brutes and imbeciles, now can we?"

"Yes my Lord, very good," said Rodolphus. "I will show you the way."

They walked in silence, passing a guard at the entrance of the cave. When spotting his master the guard bowed his head in greeting, quivering slightly. The Dark Lord just sneered at the groveling man and conjured up a floating ball of light. They continued to walk through the newly dug cave which was just tall enough to walk straight. They walked for a full minute until they came up to two figures taking turns shooting blasting curses at the wall ahead while the other vanished the debris.

Every time a blasting curse hit the wall a sounding boom echoed through the tunnel, reverberating off the walls, intensifying to painful levels. Everyone in the tunnel would have their eardrums destroyed from a single bang if they hadn't all been using sound dampening spells on their ears.

The men digging were so engrossed in their work that they didn't turn around to look at the new arrivals.

"Oi! We'v bin down er'e for five bloody hours now!" the Death Eater currently shooting a blasting curse said, still not turning around. "Finally sho'ed up, eh, you bloody wa—" he continued but stopped abruptly when he turned around to see who was there.

"Mi' Lord! 'Scuse me! Didn't know it was—" he tried to apologize but again stopped abruptly, this time however it was because of the _Cruico_ curse that made him scream in agony instead. His screams echoed down the tunnel and made the guard outside flinch in terror.

It only lasted a few seconds before the Dark Lord lifted the curse. "Get out," he ordered them. The other Death Eater who had turned around upon hearing his mate scream was watching them, completely terrified. "Now," the Dark Lord added in a dangerous tone; his red eyes growing slightly darker.

The second Death Eater helped the first one and they quickly scurried down the tunnel, almost tripping several times on the uneven ground. The Dark Lord turned towards where they had been digging. "Now that we've rid ourselves of the local sheep we can finally finish this," he said. "Go fetch Wormtail and some of the other Death Eaters. Please try to find some with at least a tiny bit of intelligence. I'll take care of this."

"Yes Master," said Rodolphus who had watched the exchange without a flinch. He bowed, turned around and followed the other Death Eaters out of the tunnel.

The Dark Lord thought for a second. "Hmm, let's see now. Yes that'll do," he said softly to himself. He backed up from the wall a bit and started a complex wand movement. It produced a beam of orange light that seemed to incinerate the stone it came in contact with. He held the beam continually while it slowly burnt its way through the rock. Bright sparks flew in every direction that would make any normal man go blind from their intensity.

It was a draining spell but it only took him five minutes to dig through the last of the rock. A last crack from the Dark Lords wand and the sound of falling rubble indicated that they had breached the other side. By this time Rodolphus had returned with Wormtail and the other Death Eaters. The dust hung thick in the air but the Dark Lord didn't seem to care. He strode purposely through the dust while the other Death Eaters followed cautiously, some of them casting bubblehead charms.

They didn't have to walk very far, only a few meters, before the tunnel opened up and space became abundant. They had entered some kind of large area. The light orb that the Dark Lord had conjured wasn't enough to illuminate the entire room and all the walls were still covered in darkness. They could all clearly see the pulsing soft lights further in the room though.

No one spoke while they took in their surroundings but when spotting the lights the Dark Lord gave away a small, "Hmm."

He waved his wand at the light-orb and the light intensified. It rose high up in the room to let its light reach as far as possible. The effect was instantaneous. They could now see clearly the room they were in. It was huge. Huge and empty.

The only thing present in the room were four large stone pillars, reaching all the way to the ceiling, standing in a square shape in the center of the room. Between the pillars sat nineteen square pedestals, also made out of stone. They were set in a straight line with about a foot of space between them. On the pedestals was the source of the pulsing light. It seemed to be glowing spheres of some kind.

"Is this it, my Lord?" asked Rodolphus quietly.

"This is not what I expected," said the Dark Lord, ignoring the question.

He swirled his wand and cast a series of spells in the room. Nothing happened.

"There is definitely power here," said the Dark Lord. He made his way across the smooth floor, leaving footprints in the thick layer of dust covering the floor. He came up to the stone pedestals in the center. The Death Eaters followed closely behind with baited breaths.

At closer inspection the glowing spheres turned out to not be spheres at all. On top of the pedestals there were thin golden chains holding something stuck under them. The thing being held down was the source of the light. Slowly and in the same rhythm the objects glowed and pulsed. The closer they came the brighter the glow seemed to get. The Death Eaters all watched them, mesmerized by the pulsing light.

"What is this, my Lord?" asked Rodolphus.

Although he hated it, the Dark Lord was forced to admit to himself that he didn't know. Never in all of his readings had he come across something like this. Judging from his previous scan these objects were the source of the power he had felt. And this light… it was almost like they were calling out to him. Drawing his attention, like a mosquito to a flame.

He took a step closer to one of the pedestals. This particular one seemed to call him more than the others. It also had way more chains holding whatever object there than the other pedestals. He was just about to reach out to touch it when a terrifying howl pulled him back to reality.

One of the other Death Eaters had been faster than him and had gone up and touched one of the other pedestals. The Death Eater was now screaming full force with his hand on one of the golden chains, smoke starting to rise from around him. The other Death Eaters watched— transfixed by the agony of their comrade—too shocked to do anything.

"Don't touch them! Fools!" yelled the Dark Lord. But it was too late. The screaming man had fallen to the ground, his hand turned to ash. Snapping out of his stupor, one of the other Death Eaters ran up to check on him.

"H-he's d-dead," he said in a stuttering voice.

"Fools!" the Dark Lord yelled again. "Get him out of my sight."

Not wanting to call down their masters rage on them, two of the Death Eaters instantly started to drag the dead one towards the cave opening. "The rest of you, get back," he added. They did as they were told and went back to the tunnel, some of them relieved that they wouldn't be in the immediate vicinity of these objects which had claimed the life of one of their own.

Although an idiotic move, the death of one of his followers had told him much of these objects. Clearly the chains didn't just lock whatever object they were holding into place; they also worked as a trap to anyone touching them. He realized from the event that there were some kind of compulsion on the objects to make individuals near them want to touch them. While he chided himself heavily for almost falling for it, it also made him excited. Something so powerful that it could catch him—the greatest wizard in the world, unaware, surely was very powerful. He reinforced his Occlumency shields and started to examine the objects once more.

After examining the objects one by one in detail he had made his decision. He would break these chains and claim this power for himself. Arrogance and self-assurance led him back to the pedestal in the middle, the one with all the chains on it. This must be the most powerful of the objects. He would start here.

His followers stayed where they had been ordered and watched as their master worked on the golden chains. Minute after minute passed with no noticeable result and some of them started to get drowsy. Then, after almost two full hours of nonstop spellcasting a loud metallic snap told the Death Eaters that their master had finally found a way to break the chains. Another ten minutes and all of the chains were broken.

The Dark Lord looked down on the object lying on the pedestal, frowning slightly. It was a simple necklace, made from some dark metal and what appeared to be a blue sapphire. Casting some more spells to make sure it wasn't cursed the Dark Lord then reached out and grabbed it.

Instantly the Dark Lord gave a sharp yell and fell to his knees. His followers were just about to run up to him and check what had happened when they were stopped by his hand rising up in the air. They waited with baited breaths while their master just sat there on his knees, his back towards them, holding the necklace.

One minute passed. Still nothing.

Two minutes passed and some of the Death Eaters started to look at each other nervously, silently debating if they should do something or not.

Three minutes passed and the Death Eaters were now silently whispering to each other, trying to decide who should go up and check on their master.

Finally the Dark Lord stood up. "I see," was the only thing he said.

"My Lord?" Rodolphus asked.

The Dark Lord slowly raised his hands and put the necklace over his head. He then turned around to watch his followers. They wore different expressions on their faces. Mostly fear, but also confusion, and in Rodolphus case, intrigue.

"Stop standing there like sheep. Rodolphus, you're coming with me. I have orders for you. The rest of you will start to dismantle the rest of these chains and gather the objects they are guarding. This is how you do it," he showed them the spell he had used to break the chains. "Wormtail, you are in charge here. Make sure no one touches the objects. Use levitation charms and put them in these boxes."

He conjured up two boxes, one black and one white. He then walked up to the pedestals and pointed at each of them, telling the Death Eaters in which box to put them.

"Again, do NOT touch them. I will be most displeased in anyone who does so," he finally said.

"Y-yes master. I will make sure it goes as you say," said Wormtail in a shaky voice, stammering slightly. The Death Eaters looked confused but started to comply anyway.

"For your sake, I hope you do, Wormtail. Rodolphus," the Dark Lord said and started to walk briskly out of the cave, not stopping to check if Rodolphus was following him.

-o-

The Death Eaters worked long into the night. Even though their master had managed to snap the chains quite fast once he figured out what spell to use the same couldn't be said for his followers. Their technique was sloppy and their power unfocused. It took them the better part of the night to break most of the chains.

Now, in the early morning, there was only one necklace not freed from its bonds. This one had been protected by nearly as many chains as the one their master took. The Death Eater assigned to it had been working on it nonstop throughout the night. The others were standing and waiting impatiently for him to break the last few chains so they could go and get some rest.

Not wanting to keep his companions from sleep he told them that they could go and rest and that he would be done in about half an hour. Being as tired as they were they readily agreed and left the Death Eater alone. They took the black box with them and left the white one. The last necklace was to go in that one.

His prediction came true and thirty minutes later the last chain broke with a snap. By this point the Death Eater was exhausted. All he wanted to do was close his eyes and sleep for a day. But he still had one thing left to do before he could do that. He pointed his wand at the necklace and cast a levitation charm. Lack of experience and a heavy dose of fatigue made the charm fail halfway to the box though and the necklace fell to the ground with a clank. The light coming from it intensified and the Death Eater watched it, enthralled by it's intensity.

He shook his head and shrugged off the drowsiness. This was no time to slack off. He tried to cast the spell again but found that he just couldn't focus enough to make it work properly. He contemplated just calling another Death Eater to levitate it but decided not to a second later.

Again, the light caught his eye and he became entranced by it. It was so beautiful and serene, what harm could it do? Nothing so beautiful could hurt anyone. He would only be holding it for a second—and oh how he wanted to hold it, cradle it, be comforted by it.

Disregarding his master's previous orders he reached out to pick up the necklace.

-.-.-.-

_What's this? It almost taste like… yes… chaos. The mist will disperse and a thousand voices will cry out in agony._

_-.-.-.-_

The instant his skin came in contact with the necklace agony struck him. Somehow through the pain his hand clenched tightly around the necklace. His screams echoed through the hall and through the tunnel. It alerted the guards on the outside and Wormtail and another Death Eater came rushing in to see what was going on.

"What's going on?" shouted Wormtail as they entered.

The trashing Death Eater didn't answer though and just kept on screaming. They tried to hold him down but the trashing was too violent. They tried for a minute to subdue him with no success.

"Get back! I'll stun him," said Wormtail to the other Death Eater who took a few steps back.

Wormtail had never been known for his amazing spellwork. He would often mispronounce an incantation or fail at producing the correct wand movements. In this case though the spell worked flawlessly, or at least would have if his aim hadn't been so terrible. The red beam of the stunner missed the trashing Death Eater by almost two feet.

Wormtail swore and was just about to cast a second one when the Death Eater stopped moving. One second he was trashing wildly and the next he was laying deathly still. His eyes had started to bleed slightly and the blood was running slowly on the side of his face. Shocked by the sudden stillness and silence around them they waited a moment before speaking, seeing if the man would move again.

When the man didn't move a moment later the other Death Eater asked, "D'you think e's dead?"

Before Wormtail had time to answer though the man on the ground groaned and slowly sat up.

"Oi, Higgs, you aight?" asked the Death Eater, warily holding his wand at his side. Wormtail was watching closely, not sure what to make of it.

Higgs, the Death Eater sitting on the ground, looked around in confusion. After nearly ten seconds of silence he spoke. "I'm… fine," was all he said.

"You gave us a righ scare there, mate," said the Death Eater, still a bit uneasy due to the blood.

Wormtail took a step forward and pointed at Higgs. "W-what's that? The Master told us not to touch any of the objects," he said in his usual scrawny voice.

"What the... Higgs, y'know betta than tha. Master's gonna be righ mad when he finds out. Drop it quickly," said the standing Death Eater.

Higgs lifted his hand and looked at the necklace that he was till grasping tightly. Realization and understanding seemed to set in on him. Wormtail, clearly mistaking his expression as fear of his master, points his wand and cast a levitation charm on the necklace, obviously intending to put it in the box.

Higgs, however, feeling the pressure of the charm on the necklace tightens his grip on it, stopping the spell short. Wormtail and the other Death Eater look bewildered at him.

"What the 'ell, Higgs? Drop it! The master is gonna punish us if he fin's out," said the other Death Eater frantically.

Higgs didn't seem to take note of the protest though and instead focused all his attention on the wand in Wormtails hands. He then slowly stood up and made his way towards the white box. The Death Eater and Wormtail just looked confused at his behavior. Stopping at the box, now standing directly between Wormtail and the other Death Eater, he extended his hand as if to drop the necklace into the box. Instead of dropping it though he just held it there.

Wormtail now having enough of this, the master had left _him _in charge after all, extended his hand to take the necklace from Higgs. Just as he was about to reach for it though Higgs spun around lightning fast and threw a punch at Wormtails face. It connected with a crunch and Wormtail went down.

The other Death Eater had frozen in shock and didn't have the time to react when Higgs spun around once more and delivered a solid kick to his stomach. The force of it pushes him back and he crashes into one of the stone pillars behind him. His head snaps back at the impact and collide with the pillar as well, making him fall down in an unconscious heap.

For a moment Higgs just stands there-watching the two fallen Death Eaters for any reaction. Nothing. They were out stone cold. Only hesitating slightly, Higgs seemed to come to a snap decision. He pulled the necklace over his head and pulled a knife from his pocket. He strode over to Wormtails body and without flinching or even blinking he knelt down and thrust the knife all the way through Wormtails throat. Blood instantly started to flow and mix with the dust on the floor. The body convulsed slightly but a few seconds later death crept from the shadows, like a slithering snake sneaking up on its pray, and stole the last rasping breath that Wormtail would ever take.

-.-.-.-

_And so it begins. Angels fell from the sky and innocents wept in the streets._

_-.-.-.-_

He held the knife steady for half a minute after Wormtails body had stopped twitching, then with a quick jerk and a squelching sound he pulled it out. He held up the blade and watched as the blood slowly dripped from the edge down on Wormtails face, disgust evident in his expression. After wiping the knife clean on Wormtails robes he got up and walked over to the other Death Eater, intending to repeat the process, only to find that he didn't have to. Judging by the blood slowly spreading around the Death Eaters head the impact must have been enough to crack his skull.

Not sparing another glance at the dead bodies he pocketed his knife and walked over to the white box containing the necklaces. He looked through it and counted. With a nod he closed the lid and picked it up. It was time to leave.

-o-

He passed a lone guard at the entrance of the tunnel that had stayed behind when Wormtail and the other Death Eater went in to investigate. The Death Eater asked frantically what had happened and where the other two were. Higgs just ignored him and kept on walking. The Death Eater watched him leave in confusion before he turned around and walked into the tunnel to check where his mates went.

Needless to say, less than five minutes later Higgs was running through the thick forest covering the west side of the camp, a group of Death Eaters hot on his heels. He dodged trees and branches in his pursuit to escape the flying spells at his back. It was still early morning so visibility was very low. As a result he couldn't see the smaller branches very clearly and received numerous cuts throughout his body.

The darkness did also work in his favor though. The chasing Death Eaters had a hard time tracking him, much less getting a clear shot. One moment they were almost upon him and the next they were far out of sight, only to show up three seconds later closer than ever. It did allow him a few seconds of relief when that happened though.

It was during one of those moments that the ground suddenly disappeared in front of him and he had to throw himself into the nearest tree to stop him from running over the edge. At closer inspection he realized he had come up to the side of a waterfall. He allowed himself a second to think. Jump or try to circle back? He had just decided that circling back was probably his best bet when he heard branches snap behind him. His head whirled around to see the Death Eaters coming at his from all angles, spells blazing. Before he had time to react one of the spells hit him in the back, making him drop the box he was carrying. Another spell hit him in the side and the force of it made him stumble and fly over the edge.

-.-.-.-

_Empires fall and empires rise. I've seen it happen plenty of times. Leaders squabble over what's wrong and what's right. They dictate what to believe and who to worship. They kill indiscriminately in the righteous name of their belief or just because they want to._

_In the middle of it innocents perish. _

_I remember one woman very vividly. She was cradling her infant baby to her chest while hiding under her bed. Her house was about to be set on fire yet she didn't try to escape. The smell of blood and burning flesh came wafting in from the streets outside where men and woman cried out their last breaths. _

_At the time I didn't know why she was hiding in a burning house rather than trying to escape and save her child. In hindsight I realize she would prefer the flames to take both her and her child instead of facing what was outside._

_In the end though they found her. A scavenging soldier had entered her house before they set it on fire, searching for any valuable items. She had done everything in her power to stay quiet and unnoticed but the child, probably sensing its mothers distress, had cried out._

_The woman got to see her child thrown against a wall and stomped to death by soldiers right before they beat her and raped her several times. She was brought back to their camp to be used for the soldiers entertainment. Her suffering didn't end until the day after when a drunken soldier got too violent and beat her to death._

_-.-.-.-_

For a short moment Higgs was flying. Everything around him seemed to slow down to a crawl and even the deafening roar of the waterfall faded into a faint whisper. The sharp rocks below him were creeping ever closer and closer. His entire body twisted in slow motion until he was falling head first into the raging stream below.

One more second passed and the only thing he could hear was a single heartbeat. It was like a race gun had gone off. Everything sped up at an alarming rate and his inevitable doom came rushing at him.

With a deafening splash he hit the water.

Pain.

Cold.

More pain.

Pain was good. Pain meant that he was not dead. He could work with that.

Somehow, against all odds, he had managed to miss all of the sharp rocks and plummet straight into the raging water stream. He was now being sucked away by the strong current, fighting unconsciousness.

The stream kept on pushing him down under the surface and it got increasingly harder to orient himself. The current twisted him around, left, right, up, down. In the end he didn't know what was up and down. The water stung his eyes, making it impossible to see anything clearly on those moments he weren't under the surface.

Then the stream took a left turn and for a moment he got his bearing back. Pushing himself above the surface, he quickly looked around furiously for anything to grab on to. There! Just around the next bend—a tree branch—laying partially in the water.

Pushing himself even further, he started to furiously swim to one side so he could align himself with the branch. Preparing himself to be sucked down as the stream turned, he let it push him down. Feeling something soft but solid under his feet he used his legs to push away with all of his might, stretching out his arms as far as he could.

He felt his hand touch something solid and furiously grabbed for it. His hand closed around the murky branch, gripping tightly. His body turned around with a jolt, making him almost lose his grip.

He pulled and pulled, using powers he didn't know he had. Almost slipping and losing his grip several times, Higgs finally managed to pull himself up on land.

Bleeding, beaten, and freezing cold, he willed himself not to fall into the blissful arms of sweet unconsciousness. Even after surviving the fall, even after managing not to drown, there was still one major threat. The Death Eaters.

They would no doubt try to locate his body, if for no other reason than the necklace around his neck. Sure enough, twisting around and looking up at the edge where he had fallen from, he could see several beams of light shining down at the sharp rocks below. They were obviously not foolish enough to try to jump after him but he had no doubt that they would find a way down sooner or later.

Deciding not to take any chances he forced himself to get up and move into the forest. It was slow and it was painful but it was better than the alternative. Twenty minutes later he decided that he was far enough into the woods to avoid any immediate detection—mostly because he had tripped over a branch and couldn't get up again.

Finally he let blissful darkness consume him.

-o-

When Higgs next woke up he was in the same spot as when he had passed out. Judging by the sun's low position he had been out for several hours. Slowly feeling around and testing himself for injuries he winced when his hand came in contact with the blood caked wound to his side. It was no longer bleeding freely though, that was good. He wouldn't be able to fend off any infection for very long but that was fine. He would have enough time to do what he needed.

He worked his way into a sitting position against a tree. The sudden jolt of pain from his back reminded him of the wound on his back and so he had to adjust his position, leaning slightly on his uninjured side.

He felt around his robe for his knife but couldn't find it. He had probably lost it during his little trip through the river. He did find his wand though. He pulled it out and examined it. It seemed to be in working order. He remembered how Wormtail had used his to cast a levitation charm back in the cave. Frowning slightly he waved it around the same way he remembered Wormtail doing it. Nothing happened.

Over the next thirty minutes he kept on waving the wand in seemingly random patterns with no results. He was just about to throw the wand away in frustration when something finally happened. An orange beam left the wand and connected with a tree not far away, leaving a fist sized hole at the point of impact.

"Finally, useless things these sticks…" he muttered to himself.

He repeated the same wand movement and the same thing happened. Orange beam and fist sized hole. He repeated the process over and over until there were holes in every tree nearby. The first time he had cast the spell it had been sloppy and inexperienced but every time he repeated it there was more power and the spell was more focused, resulting in a bigger hole. In the end he barely had to twitch the wand to cast it.

Nodding in satisfaction he got up on shaky legs and walked over to a space where the trees were a little more spread out, giving him a wide berth.

"Okay, basics down, rest should be the same," he once again mumbled to himself.

Extending his wand straight forward and closing his eyes. He held the wand still for a minute while the point started to glow in a faint white color. Once the glow was so bright that it would sting if you looked right at it he started to move the wand. He moved it as far up as he could, then he traced a big oval all the way down to the ground. Once the wand came back to the point where it had started he opened his eyes.

The oval that he had outline in midair started to glow in the same way as his wand. With a jab he pushed the wand straight through the middle of the oval. Instantly the bright white glow started to fade away, leaving a serene picture in place.

It was a picture of a lake and a forest. The last rays of the sun could be seen glistering on the water surface and the leaves on the trees swayed gently in the breeze. Birds soared slowly through the darkening blue sky. It was a very nice picture. The thing that made the picture stand out though was the big medieval castle in the background and the sun that was just about to hide itself behind one of the tall towers.

Higgs didn't seem to care about the scenery though. As soon as the picture had appeared he walked straight through it, prompting the picture to slowly fade away in a blur. When the picture was completely gone so was Higgs.

* * *

**A/N: **Welcome to my story. I'm not really long on notes so i'll just wish you a happy reading and I hope you enjoyed this prologue.


	2. Chapter One - Flying Through Water

**Bygones Reclaimed**  
Chapter One - Flying Through Water

"This is ridiculous!"

"I know Harry, but try to look at it from his point of view," Hermione said. Upon seeing Harry's face snapping to her in anger she quickly added, "I'm not defending him, alright? All I'm saying is that from his perspective, it makes sense."

He huffed. "Nothing about that man makes any sense at all. Almost four weeks since school started, three months since Voldemorts return, and all he's done is calling me a liar."

"I know, I know. He is just scared and he's letting his fear control him. Professor Dumbledore is trying to talk some sense into him," she said.

"Yeah mate, Dumbledore will set him straight. And if not there's always the order," Ron added from across the table.

"Ron! It's supposed to be a secret!" Hermione said in a shrill whisper.

"Oh, yeah," Ron said sheepishly and not so subtly scanned around the great hall for any eavesdroppers.

"And what are they doing anyway? They won't even let us in on the meetings. I spent the entire summer scanning the papers for any news but there's nothing. Voldemort is after me and they aren't telling me anything," Harry snapped at his friends.

"I know! You don't have to snap at us Harry. You've been in a foul mood since term started and I understand. We've been over this. I don't like it either. I'm just trying to see it from their perspective." Hermione said with frustration etched on her face.

Harry sighed deeply. "I'm sorry Hermione. I just wish I could do something other than sit here and do nothing. And Fudge isn't making things easier," he said.

"Eh, you're probably just bored mate. This year is probably the least eventful so far, not counting that Umbridge toad. Dumbledore'll sort out you-know-who," Ron said while reaching for the smoked ribs plate. "You should just let Cho take it off your mind, if you know what I mean," he added with a saucy wink.

Harry opened his mouth to say something but didn't and closed it again. "Seriously, Ron? I have other things to think about than some girl. Sod off," Harry said. He got up and left the great hall, leaving his half eaten dinner and friends behind.

"What?" Ron called after him.

"Honestly Ron…" Hermione said and started to lecture Ron on the finer points of social behavior.

-.-.-.-

'_Let's establish a few facts._

_One, you are a fool._

_Two, being a fool is good._

_Three, I'm no fool._

_Makes sense? No? Give it a minute.'_

_A man with a beard said that to me once. Well not exactly like that but the gist of it is the same. I thought he was joking and replied, 'if being a fool is good then why are you the captain?' He didn't laugh._

_It took me a while to realize what he meant by it. Once I did I really missed being a fool. _

_Now, in hindsight, I guess I proved his point._

-.-.-.-

-o-

Harry didn't go back to the Gryffindor common rooms after leaving. Instead he went for a walk to collect his thoughts. He didn't really have any destination in mind so he decided to just go for a walk through the castle.

Things had been bad after last year. Cederic's death had hit him hard and for about three weeks after he was severely depressed. He hadn't told his relatives what had happened, not like it would've made it any better. On the contrary, it would probably have made things worse.

As it was, his uncle did pick up on that something was bothering him and so worked extra hard to make his life as unenjoyable as possible. Harry didn't want to know what lengths his uncle would go to make him miserable if he actually knew what happened.

He just kept quiet and didn't complain. He finished all his chores and various jobs that his uncle could think up, without saying a word that wasn't strictly necessary to completing the current task. He spent the rest of his time thinking about how Cederic didn't have to die and that he should've done more.

Nightmares plagued his sleep and continued to wake him up during the nights. Due to the lack of sleep they soon started to creep over into his waking hours as well. Dudley had heard him talk during his sleep and had started to use it as a way to annoy Harry. The first time Dudley had mentioned Cederic's name Harry had seen red and almost hit Dudley over the head with the shovel he was using to dig up weeds.

Only the fact that Dudley had picked up boxing over the year and had improved his reaction time saved him from a cracked skull. Instead the shovel had hit him over the hand which had quickly swollen to twice its size.

After it happened Harry realized what he'd done and instantly felt disgusted by himself. It did sort of work out in the end though. Only the fear of what Harry might do if pushed enough made his relatives not call the cops or try anything in retaliation. The only thing that happened once they returned from the hospital was that he got locked up in his room with no dinner. This was the turning point for Harry. It was the point at which he realized that fear did have its uses, even unintentional as it were.

His relatives didn't try to bother him after that incident. He got a meal twice a day and a bathroom visit in the morning and the evening. It was fine with him as long as he didn't have to associate with any of them.

It did give him a lot of time to think though. If his relatives being afraid of him had this kind of effect what could it do against Voldemort? Could he even make Voldemort afraid? Was it even worth considering?

He became consumed by this train of thought for the rest of the summer and his depression got pushed to the side. He had Hedwig fly to Hermione and bring him back both a magical and muggle newspaper every day. He scanned the pages for anything that could be even remotely connected to Voldemort but never found anything. All he found was the Minister of Magic— Cornelius Fudge—was doing everything in his power to deny the return of the 'Dark Lord You-Know-Who', even going as far as outright calling Harry a liar.

Once Dumbledore decided that he could leave the Dursleys he was sure that he would finally get some information about Voldemort. He was surprised when Dumbledore didn't bring him to the Weasleys but instead brought him to what was apparently the headquarter for a secret Order dedicated to defeating Voldemort. It did make sense though; Dumbledore wouldn't just let Fudge destroy any chance they had at mounting a defense against the attacks that was sure to happen any day.

However, when he was told that he wasn't allowed to attend the meetings he was enraged. Voldemort was targeting him personally and he wasn't allowed to know anything about it. What's more is that he was expected to just go on as nothing had happened. Attend school as if there wasn't a very powerful mad man out to kill him and everyone he knows.

He tried to voice his objection but was flatly rejected. He even wanted to slap Mrs. Weasley when she said that he was too young to be a part of the order. The only one who seemed to actually care at least a little about what he thought was Sirius. It wasn't enough though, he still was not allowed to know anything useful.

Then they got back to Hogwarts and things got even worse. He still wasn't allowed to know anything important about Voldemort but now, on top of that, the ministry was interfering with everything. He took the presence of the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher Dolores Umbridge as a personal insult to him. It was clear that the minister put her there to keep him in check as well as go against Dumbledore.

The worst part was that there was nothing he could do about it. He just wanted to do something—anything—to help but any time he tried approaching Dumbledore the man somehow disappeared. It frustrated him to no end.

Cho Chang, Cederic's girlfriend, had also started to get closer to him, for whatever reason he didn't know. He suspected that she wanted to know what had happened the night Cederic died but he wasn't ready to talk about it. He told her so when she asked but still she kept coming back just to talk about things.

He realized that she was probably going through something similar to what he himself was and that she might just wanted someone to talk to and so he continued to meet up with her. Ron, with his narrow perspective, of course got the wrong idea right away. He couldn't blame him though, the rest of the school thought the same.

They had become somewhat close friends during their talks but Harry didn't seriously think that she wanted to get together with him. Not after what happened. That's why he got so surprised when yesterday, as they were walking through the castle between classes, she leaned over and kissed him. Right there in front of everyone.

Harry was so surprised that he didn't know what to do and sort of just left her there. She tried to go after him and apologize but classes were about to start so she didn't have time to track him down. He had been avoiding her ever since. This was also the reason he got so ticked off with Ron during dinner that day.

He didn't really know what to make of it. She was nice and all and if this had been last year he would probably be all over her. Now though, he felt guilty about even considering it. She had been Cederic's girlfriend and he had been there when Cederic died…

He shook his head. He just couldn't focus on anything right now. He decided that even though it was getting a bit late that he would go out flying for a while, just to clear his head. He went back to his dorm room to retrieve his broom, ignoring Ron's attempts to get him to go play chess with him, and went outside.

-o-

The sun was getting low but you could still see clearly outside. It was still quite warm outside this late in September so he didn't bother bringing a cape with him. He just wanted to get into the air and let all his problems go away.

Once he reached the Quidditch pitch and got into the air everything was perfect again. Up here he was free. He could do whatever he wanted. Go wherever he wanted to go and nothing could stop him.

He swirled and looped throughout the pitch, practicing some crazy maneuvers for Quidditch that would make Hermione shriek. He worked for an hour straight until he was too tired to do any more exercises. He decided to just drift for a bit.

He watched the leaves on the trees sway slightly in the breeze and the birds soaring through the darkening sky. The sun was getting lower and lower and would soon disappear entirely behind the North Tower. He was watching it, still hovering in the air, marveling at the beauty of something so simple.

Then there was a splash from somewhere behind him. He turned around to check it out, thinking it was probably just the giant squid playing a game with a student. He couldn't immediately see anything though so he started to drift closer to the lake.

Then he saw it. Something was in the water, splashing around, and it was too small to be the squid. He squinted his eyes and saw that it appeared to be a person in there, and judging by the wild splashing he or she wasn't just going for a leisurely swim. Did the squid pull a student who couldn't swim out in the water?

He stopped thinking about it and started to accelerate as fast as he could towards the person. The pitch was quite a bit away from the lake so it took him a good thirty seconds to reach it. Once he did the person in the water had stopped moving around and appeared to be slowly sinking.

Harry hurried his broom as fast as he could but the person was now completely submerged. He took a deep breath and readied himself. The next second he smashed into the water surface, broom and everything. The cold water hit him in the face and he almost pulled up again in sheer reflex. He felt a sharp throbbing pain through his head from the sudden temperature change but did his best to ignore it. As a result his vision blurred from the pain and made it hard for him to see in the already dark water.

The broom didn't appear to work very well under water and slowed down significantly. Momentum worked in his favor though and brought him the rest of the way to the sinking person.

He couldn't really see who it was under the water but he managed to grab a hold of the person around his waist with one hand and pulled as hard as he could on his broom with the other, trying to turn it upwards. The weight of the two together wanted to keep pushing them down and Harry felt brief panic when he realized that they might not make it up again. Their robes billowed around them, making it even harder for Harry to orient himself. He pulled with all of his might on the broom in an attempt to get it to ascend.

It was slow but it worked. Once they breached the surface Harry drew in large gulps of air in relief, but his relief was short lived. Once the broom surfaced the charms on it seemed to kick into overdrive and it almost shot away from under Harry. It shocked him, making him almost lose his grip on it.

The weight of the person he was carrying became too much for him once they tried to lift off from the water so he had to stay on the surface. Taking a second to regain his bearing, he started to half fly and half float towards the shore. The water made his broom handle slick and slippery and he almost lost his grip on it several times. Every time it happened he jerked violently, the water splashing around them, trying to regain his grip.

It was slow and cold but the shore drew ever closer. When he felt his legs touch the bottom of the lake he got off his broom and started to drag the person up the shore.

With his adrenaline still pumping Harry tossed his broom aside and knelt down next to the man. It wasn't a student, that much was obvious. No one in the school wore completely black robes, except Snape, and no teacher that he knew looked anything like this person.

The man wasn't moving and Harry was just about to pull out his wand when he started to cough up large amounts of water. Now on land Harry noticed that the man appeared to be bleeding as well from a large gash on his side.

"Are you alright?" asked Harry.

The man just continued to cough.

"Hey, are you alright?" Harry asked again.

"Is.. *cough* t-this Hogwarts?" the man managed to croak out.

"Yes it is," said Harry. "We need to get you to the Hospital Wing."

He raised his wand to levitate the man but was stopped when the man grabbed his arm.

"No! I need… *cough* Harr-*cough* Potter," the man said through the coughing.

Harry still too worked up on adrenaline to realize what the man asked just said, "Yeah, that's me. But we really need to get you to the hospital wing. You seem to be bleeding and Madame Pomfrey will fix you in—" he was cut off by the man grabbing onto his arm harder and pulling him close.

They were now mere inches apart. He could see all the dirt and every scratch on the man's face. His brown hair and unshaven chin were soaked with water and from this distance he could also see that there appeared to be caked blood mixed with the tangled hair as well. The man was staring intensely at him with bloodshot eyes. There seemed to be something burning deep within them.

"Harry Potter. I am going to…*cough*… die… here and I need you to do something important for me," he said in a voice strained to remain stable.

Harry not knowing what was going on just whispered, "What?"

"Take care of this," the man said and pushed something into Harry's hand. "Don't tell anyone about it… *cough*… keep it a secret..." he added with a fading voice.

Harry looked down in his hand and saw that the man had given him a necklace of some kind. He didn't have time to look closer on it because at that moment the man's grip on him loosened. Harry turned his gaze back to the man's face but there was nothing there anymore. The burning passion he had seen in the man's eyes before were now gone, replaced by the cold glare of death.

-.-.-.-

_I stared at the kneeling man before me. He was young, almost more of a boy than a man. Another innocent that would perish by my hands. I was just about to swing my sword and end his life when the man raised his head and stared straight into my eyes._

_He said nothing but there was no need for words. I understood perfectly. Fear was completely absent in his eyes and the only thing I could see staring back at me was myself. This man was no innocent. He was exactly like me. _

_I could see acceptance and almost a little relief that his life was about end. I did the only thing I could do. I set him free and offered him to join me. He accepted._

_I wish I could remember his name._

-.-.-.-

He put the necklace in his pocket and started to shake the man.

"Hey! Hey you! Stay awake!" he tried but the man remained lifeless.

Panic set in. This was Cederic all over again. He stood up and turned towards the castle and readied his wand. He had never done this before but Professor Lupin had told him the theory behind it.

He searched his mind for a happy memory but had a hard time to find a good one. Finally deciding on one he shouted, "_Expecto Patronum!"_

Nothing but a faint mist appeared and Harry shook his head. _Focus! _He tried again with another memory and this time it worked. The image of his father's Animagus form stood in front of him and watched him closely.

This was the part Harry had never done before. He focused on the message he wanted to send and to whom. The stag seemed to understand clearly and nodded. It turned around and raced off towards the castle.

He turned back to the man's body and cast the levitation charm on it. He then proceeded to levitate it as fast as he dared towards the castle. When he was coming up close to the doors Madame Pomfrey and Professor McGonagall rushed out to meet him.

"Mr. Potter! What's the meaning of this?" Professor McGonagall started, a bewildered expression on her face.

"The man just appeared out of nowhere in the great lake. I-i think he's dead," was his response.

Madame Pomfrey wasted no time on questions and quickly rushed to the body and started to cast spells.

"How long ago did he stop breathing?" she asked after a moment of spellcasting.

"I-i dunno. Maybe three minutes?" said Harry.

She nodded and cast what appeared to be a stasis charm on the body. It became rigid and covered by a thin blue field of some kind.

"I need to get him to the hospital wing," she said and started to levitate the body with far more expertise than Harry did before.

Harry made to follow but was stopped by Professor McGonagall. "Mr. Potter, please wait in my office. I need to check on a few things," she said and rushed off after Madam Pomfrey, leaving Harry to watch them disappear around a corner.

_What the hell just happened?_ Was the only thing he could think. He quickly made his way to McGonagall's office. When he got there the door seemed to expect him because it swung open on his approach. Thinking that McGonagall wouldn't appreciate him dripping water all over her office he quickly cast a drying charm on himself. Still feeling a little cold from the water he added a warming charm on his robe. Then he went inside and took a seat in front of the big mahogany desk.

He sat there and waited while trying to collect his thoughts. What had really happened out there? Who was that man?

Then he remembered the item the man had given him. It had completely slipped his mind. He pulled it out of his pocket to examine it closer. It was a necklace as he first thought. The chain was made out of some kind of metal. It was too bright to be gold but it still had a golden tint to it. Hanging from the chain was a cylindrical shaped gemstone. It was purple and clear as glass. The only purple gemstone Harry knew about was amethyst. The light reflected from it seemed to dance in his mind.

It was a beautiful piece of jewelry but Harry couldn't see anything special about it. But then again, with magic things rarely did seem special on the outside. Why had the man given him this? And hang on, didn't he specifically ask for him in person?

His train of thought was interrupted by the door swinging open and Professor McGonagall walking in. He quickly put the necklace back into his pocket on a reflex. After he did he wondered why he did that. Why couldn't he show it to Professor McGonagall? The man had told him to keep it secret but he could tell his head of house surely? He decided to keep it to himself until he knew more of the person who gave it to him.

McGonagall went over and sat down behind her desk. She had a serious expression on her face.

"Mr. Potter, can you tell me exactly what happened outside?" she said.

Over the next ten minutes he told her in detail what had happened, leaving the necklace out of the explanation. Once he was done McGonagall seemed to slump down in her chair. She looked older than Harry had ever seen her.

"The man's name was Peter Higgs and he was a known Death Eater. We found the dark mark on his arm," she said in a defeated voice. "How a Death Eater could get this close to Hogwarts unnoticed is beyond me but it's worrying. I had hoped you could shed some light on it but apparently not."

Harry swallowed. "'Was'? Is he…" he began but trailed off.

"Dead? Yes quite," she said. "That was strange too actually. He wasn't quite dead when Madam Pomfrey got him to the hospital wing. She said it was the strangest case she had ever seen. Except for the wounds on his body, all scans showed that he should have been fine. She said that the only thing that resembled it was the state a person is in after being kissed by a Dementor. The difference was that with the Dementor's kiss the body still retain basic functions to survive. The person keeps breathing and the heart keeps pumping blood. In this case however it was like the mind had been completely erased. Even basic things like breathing was gone," she said and looked thoughtful.

They sat in silence for a moment and Harry was beginning to wonder if he should leave when McGonagall spoke again.

"Did he say anything to you beyond what you've told me?" she asked and looked intently at him.

This would be the time to tell her about the necklace if he was going to, but for some reason that he didn't quite get he kept silent about it.

"No professor. He just stopped breathing and I sent my patronus to you and Madame Pomfrey," he said, averting his eyes slightly from her gaze.

Taking his reaction as a sign of discomfort for the situation rather than the outright lie that it was, she nodded silently.

"Alright Mr. Potter. I assume it's impossible to persuade you not tell Mr Weasley and Ms Granger about this so I'm not going to try. All I ask is that you keep it within you three. We don't want to start a panic without knowing how the Death Eater got here in the first place," she said and glanced out the window. "I'm sorry Mr. Potter. I've kept you for too long. You must be getting tired. Curfew is coming up so I suggest you go back to your house."

Now that she mentioned it he did feel a bit tired. The adrenaline rush had worn off a while ago and he had already used up a lot of energy before all this happened. He stifled a yawn and nodded.

"Yes professor. We won't tell anyone else. Goodnight," he said.

"Good night Mr. Potter."

-o-

When walking from Professor McGonagall's office his thoughts again wandered to the strange necklace in his pocket. He took it out to look at it one more time. It really was a pretty thing. The light from the torches reflected off the purple amethyst and made it seem like it was glowing. He was mesmerized by the dancing light as he walked. He had never seen anything so beautiful in his entire life. He was so engrossed that he didn't notice the caretaker's cat, Mrs Norris, until he accidentally stepped on her tail.

She screeched loudly and swatted at his robe with her claws. It made him snap out of the trance-like state he'd been walking in. That damn cat never moved out of anyone's way. It wasn't strange though. Every student wanted to avoid her anyway because wherever she was Filch was sure to be nearby.

And sure enough, just around the next corner he could hear the caretaker's unmistakable limp coming towards him. He really didn't want to get caught out wandering after curfew, even if he could easily have McGonagall get him out of any trouble, it would require a trip back to her office.

He looked around for a place to hide but the only thing he could see was a pair of green drapes hanging in an alcove in the wall. Without thinking about it he pulled the necklace over his head and went behind the curtains to hide. He could hear the caretaker, who had just rounded the corner into the hall, talking to his cat.

"What is it my love? Any students out of their beds?" he said sweetly to his cat.

Mrs Norris just meowed in response.

"We'll catch them my love. Don't you worry about that," he said and started to shuffle slowly down the hallway.

Harry could see the light of the caretaker's lamp move around on the floor from behind the curtains. Once they had passed the place he was hiding in he released a breath that he didn't realize that he was holding. When he did that Mrs Norris turned around and looked right at the spot he was hiding at. She should be able to see him clearly from that angle and he was sure he was caught.

To his amazement though she just took a few steps closer and sniffed the air before turning back and following her master.

Once they were out of sight Harry just shook his head and continued back to the Gryffindor tower. Maybe he was just lucky with Mrs Norris. When he got back Ron and Hermione was still up and waiting for him but he was too tired to tell them what had happened and decided to do it the next day.

He went to bed, not realizing that he still had the necklace around his head.

-o-

His dreams were plagued by images of the dead man at the lake. The man was standing halfway submerged in the lake while watching Harry on the shoreline. Water was dripping from his hair and made little drippings sounds.

He didn't want to look but sheer morbid curiosity made him raise his eyes and meet the dead man's gaze. He quickly closed his eyes as his pulse quickened, his heart almost skipping a beat in it's hurry to keep up. After all, the man was dead, how was he to expect accusation staring back at him from a dead man's eyes. There shouldn't be anything in those dead eyes.

He slowly opened his eyes, expecting to see the same dead man again, but found that he had been replaced by Cederic, who were standing in the same spot. Unlike the Death Eater, Cederic's eyes were alive and full with life. He was waving slowly towards Harry.

"Harry, you need to keep it secret," said Cederic, in a hollow voice, like he was speaking underwater.

Then he faded again and the man with dead eyes, filled with accusation, came back.

"… keep it secret… " he said in a monotone voice.

Again, Cederic appeared and said the same thing. The dream kept alternating between the two, faster and faster.

Then, when the two were switching so fast that he couldn't make out the difference between them anymore he realized that he was dreaming. It was like someone had flipped a switch and punched him in the stomach.

Everything became completely black and he fell to his knees. There was no ground and no sky, only darkness. Yet he could still feel solid ground under his feet and he could still see himself clearly as if he were standing outside on a sunny day.

Once he realized that he was dreaming he would usually wake up from his nightmares but this was different. He wasn't entirely sure this was still a dream.

"Am I dead?" he asked. Although the question was directed at himself he still said it out loud.

"Not yet," a voice from somewhere to his left said.

* * *

**A/N: **Nope.


	3. Chapter Two - Mindmatters

**Bygones Reclaimed**  
Chapter Two - Mindmatters

Harry turned around, looking for the source of the voice. His eyes landed on a beautiful woman in a long red dress, ending just above her knees. Her skin was the most perfect porcelain white you could ever imagine and her dark hair was a stark contrast to her pale complexion. Her eyes had the brightest auburn color he'd ever seen, they were so bright that they could almost be mistaken for orange.

She was truly a beautiful woman; even someone as inexperienced as Harry could see that. This wasn't what made his eyes go wide though. On her back she had a big pair of white feathery wings. They were folded up so he could only see the bend of them above her shoulders and the tips sticking out below her dress.

There was something familiar about those eyes. Had he seen her before?

"Well if I'm seeing angels wouldn't that mean I'm dead?" he said, honestly believing that she was an angel because of the wings. Stranger things had happened.

She just laughed at him, a beautiful, heartwarming and all too unnatural sound. "You're not the first one to call me that, but no, I'm no angel, far from it. And you are not dead, merely unconscious," she said. Harry rubbed his stomach and grimaced.

She only laughed at him more. "Yeah sorry about that. It takes a bit of force to knock someone out. You'll get over it I'm sure," she said.

"Who are you? Where are we? And what's up with those wings?" Harry asked and finally stood up.

"Woah easy there. One at a time," she said. "As for the wings…" she added and twirled her hand slightly. The wings on her back shimmered and faded. Harry just blinked at her.

"That better?" she asked but continued before he could answer. "And as to where we are, look around."

He did as she said but could only see the complete darkness around him. He didn't get it. "What? It's just darkness," he said.

She looked around, frowning slightly. "Oh yeah, you're right. Again, sorry about that. This is your mind. It's black because I knocked you out. Usually there should be all kinds of activities in here," she said.

He just shook his head in disbelief at her. "Then who are you and why did you knock me out?" he asked.

"You may call me Jezzine. I knocked you out because I needed to talk to you and this was the best way to do it," she said.

This felt surreal to Harry. Who was this strange lady and was this really his mind? And those wings, disappearing like that. Maybe this was still a dream after all and he just didn'it realize it.

"Well, I don't really appreciate being knocked out, even if I'm sleeping. So now that I know about you can you wake me up?" he asked, a little irritated at her almost playful way of talking.

"Aha, already going for the sensitive stuff I see," she said and nodded.

Her demeanor changed instantly. No longer was she laughing and being lighthearted. Her expression became serious and hard. Now he realized where he'd seen those eyes before. The Death Eater, Peter Higgs, from the lake. When he was staring into his eyes right before he died he could see the same burning intensity as he now saw in Jezzine's eyes.

"It was you. You were possessing the Death Eater at the lake somehow," he said and took a step back, eyes widening slightly.

"Relax. I'm not possessing you. Yet. What happens next is entirely up to you," she said with the same serious expression. "You can either promise to keep me a secret or I can crush your mind just as easily as I did that mans. And it's no use lying. We're in your mind after all. I already had to stop you from telling that woman about me once. I don't want to have to keep doing that all the time," she said.

Fire started to burn around her and in her hands. The heat radiating off her felt like it would burn his skin if it became even the slightest bit warmer. Her eyes started to glow a bright orange color and her hair started to whirl around as if there was a strong wind blowing in her face. Her wings reappeared and spread wide, the orange glow from the fire making it seem like they were burning too.

This was definately no dream. Dreams wouldn't actually hurt him, however gruesome they got. This, however, felt all too real. He was sure the fire would burn him just as badly as any other and it frightened him. Was this some plot from Voldemort, designed to kill him in his sleep?

"Okay okay, I won't tell anyone!" he quickly said and scrambled back a few more paces.

She just looked straight at him, as if deciding if he was telling the truth or not.

"Promise it," she said in a demanding tone. Her voice had changed and were now booming from everywhere at once. He quickly covered his ears and winced at the sheer loudness of it.

"I promise!" he hastily shouted.

Instantly everything turned back to normal. The fire and her wings disappeared again. Her expression changed back into the same happy one as before and her eyes regained their original auburn color. He just blinked, stupefied by her sudden change.

She smiled at him. "Good. Sorry about that. It was necessary. It's almost a little funny how you people get so scared by a few special effects," she said.

He just gaped at her. "You mean all that was just for show?" he asked, relieved that she wasn't going to hurt him.

"Of course. It doesn't really matter how I look. I can crush your mind just as easily looking like this. We are in your mind remember? Changing things around is easy," she said.

As if to demonstrate she closed her eyes and lowered her head. Immediately things started to happen. The darkness around them grew brighter and brighter until Harry had to shield his eyes. When the light died down and he opened his eyes again they were no longer standing in complete darkness.

Harry gaped again, mesmerized by the beautiful scene in front of him. They were now standing in a meadow filled with cherry blossom trees as far as he could see. It felt so real and natural, he even had to squint his eyes because of the bright sun. Even the slight breeze in his hair felt real, just like as if he were flying on his broom. He could definitely hear birds chirping somewhere in the trees but he couldn't spot any of them. The sea of pink flowers and their smell made his senses overload. This was a place he could get used to.

"Woah… " was all he could say.

Jezzine looked at him and smiled again. "I'm glad you like it. This place used to be one of my favorite spots before it became a graveyard," she said and snapped her finger.

The scene changed again. In it's place there was now an endless wasteland of destruction and carnage. Repulsed by the sight of the mangled bodies as far as he could see made him take a step back. The stench of blood, filth and shit was so strong that he thought he would throw up. No longer were there any cherry blossom trees in sight, only a few tree stumps seemed to remain. Appropriately enough the sun was about to set and the sky was blood red.

Jezzine was looking around too but appeared unaffected by any of it. She still looked carefree and happy. "Of course that's partially my own fault, but who's keeping score?" she continued her previous statement.

Harry turned his head towards her, his expression contorted in disgust, mainly caused by the scene but also by her careless admittance to being a part of it. _'Who the hell is this woman?' _He thought. He kept silent though.

"I told you, you may call me Jezzine," she said without turning to look at him. She snapped her finger again and the scene disappeared and the cherry blossom meadow reappeared.

Looking around again, Harry didn't quite think it as wondrous as the first time. Just knowing what had taken place at this sea of pink made him queasy. He would actually prefer the darkness over this now.

"And really Harry? Are you daft or something? I've told you, I'm in your mind. I can hear your thoughts," she continued as soon as the scenery had changed. She folded her arms and looked amused at him.

"Wait what… can you read my mind?" he asked in a panicky voice.

"Ding Ding! Ten points to Gryffindor!" she said in an overly dramatic voice. "Not all of it, though. That would seriously damage your brain. I'm hoping to avoid that since that would make me coming here quite pointless," she continued in her normal voice.

Harry nodded. He was glad that she couldn't read all of his thoughts but he still felt uneasy and a little violated that she could read any of them at all.

"You'll get over it," she said while walking towards one of the trees.

"Wha… hey would you stop that?" he said in annoyance and hurried after her. "And why did you come here then? The Death Eater asked for me in person but I assume that was you, so what do you want with me?"

She didn't immediately answer. Instead she reached up and picket one of the pink flowers from the tree. She looked down at it in her hands and sighed. Standing behind her, Harry couldn't help but notice that she seemed sad about something. As soon as he thought that she let the flower fall to the ground and turned around, smiling happily at him again.

"I guess you will need a bit of background before I tell you that. How about we take a seat here under this tree?" she asked.

They sat down on a white blanket that seemed to appear from nowhere as they took a seat.

"Where to begin, where to begin," she said with a pondering expression on her face. He couldn't help thinking she was a little cute with that expression. Remembering how she looked just a few moments ago reminded quickly ended that train of thought.

"Right, we don't actually have that much time before it's time for you to wake up so I'm going to skip a few things, alright?" she said.

He nodded, relieved that she mentioned him actually waking up again.

"I didn't say that you would still be here to control your body once you wake up," she said, obviously hearing his thought. "That part is still up for you to decide."

He gulped and motioned for her to continue.

She held out her hand, palm side up. An object shimmered into view, hovering over her hand. It was an image of the strange necklace Harry had received. It rotated slowly in the air and the sunlight reflected from it danced around them. For a moment they just watched the purple light, transfixed by the beauty of it.

"Pretty, isn't it?" she finally asked.

He nodded slowly. "Yeah it is," he said.

"At first i thought so too. Over the years that changed though. Now i loathe the damned thing," she said, scowling slightly at the image. "It is where my tale starts though, with this. You see these necklaces, yes plural, there are more out there, were originally created for two things. One, they were a symbol of my peoples leaders. And two, they were designed to give the wearer eidetic memory," she said and let the image of the necklace fade.

That didn't explain much. He gathered that the necklace had something to do with her being here, he just didn't know how, or why.

"So are you one of these leaders?" Harry interjected before Jezzine continued.

"If you don't interrupt me i'll get to that. No i wasn't a leader. The reason i had one of these was because of the second thing i mentioned. I was an apprentice keeper at the White Archives and it was crucial for me to have as good a memory as possible," she said.

At his blank stare she added, "Basically i was a librarian at a really, really, big library."

"That still doesn't explain how you ended up inside the necklace, i assume that is what happened?" Harry asked.

"Precisely. I don't know how and i don't know why. The only thing i know is that there was a really bright light and then everything was gone, except me and the eighteen others who had a necklace like mine, which i found out later. We were all trapped inside these necklaces and forced to live through a host of some kind. The only thing we could think of was that there had been a major accident involving portals. These necklaces are made of a very rare metal that has a tendency to behave oddly around portals," she explained.

Taking a moment to ponder something she then added, "Another guess is that, because of the special property that gives the wearer eidetic memory, somehow our mind were imprinted within the crystal. It's all very scientific and theoretical."

Harry just looked confused. None of this made any sense to him at all. The only kind of portal he knew of was Portkeys and he certainly hadn't heard of anything like this before.

Jezzine seemed to notice his confusion and became frustrated. "Look, none of that is really important now and i would need a lot more time to make you understand all of that. Now you know that me and a few others live inside necklaces like these. That's enough to continue," she said and huffed. She mumbled something about 'easier to just force him'.

She snapped her finger again and the scene changed. This time they ended up in the room the Death Eaters had found the necklaces. There were no chains holding the necklaces this time though.

"Some three centuries ago me and the others were captured by a group that calls themselves Edramelech. It's an old word from my people that roughly translates into 'protector'. They are not really important anymore because I doubt they are still around. All you need to know is that we did some things that they didn't like and because of that they really wanted us gone," she said and walked over to the pedestals with the necklaces.

Harry followed, briefly looking around the huge room. He watched Jezzine go up and rest her hand on one of the pillars and he idly wondered who that necklace belonged to. Was it someone important to her? The chain of the necklace had the same color as Jezzines did but the cylindrical gem were blood red instead of purple.

She continued speaking while still touching the pedestal. "They took us to this place, specially built for us. A prison within a prison you might say. They bound us here to these pedestals with chains designed to torment us. Not that it was needed. Being stuck here for three hundred years with no contact, other than sensing your friends slowly going insane, were torment enough," she said and let here arm fall to her side.

Harry felt bad for her. No one deserved to go through something like this. He imagined how it would be to be blind, deaf and paralyzed at the same time, left alone with nothing but your thoughts. He shivered even thinking about it.

"But then, about a fortnight ago sounds started to penetrate the walls," she said and snapped her finger. Immediately soft sounds started to beat, echoing off the walls.

"We sensed that something was coming and started to charge up as much power as we could to lure in whoever was coming, to regain a host, to be free from this prison of torment," she said and turned towards Harry.

"This next scene i took from the mind of that man, Higgs was it? It shows what happened when they finally broke through the wall," she said and snapped her finger.

Instantly the room became pitch black and for a moment Harry thought they were back in the darkness where he first met Jezzine. A second later there was a rumbling sound coming from the wall behind him. He turned around and watched as the wall caved in and light started to flow in from the opening.

He watched as Voldemort strode through the flying dust and had to quench a reflex to go for his wand. He looked exactly as he did back at the graveyard. His heart started to pump faster by even watching him in a memory.

The scene played out and Harry had to look away when the Death Eater touched the pedestal, meeting his unfortunate end. He watched as Voldemort figured out how to break the chains and how he picked up the necklace.

Here Jezzine snapped her hand again and Harry had to look around to spot her, momentarily forgetting that she was there.

"Here is what concerns me. See the necklace he picked up?" she asked.

Harry looked and saw that the necklace were the same shape as the other two he had seen, but this one had a blue gemstone and was made out of a darker metal. He nodded his affirmative to Jezzine.

"That one belong to a man named Golieth. For you to understand this you need to know that, before we were captured, our group had split in two over an argument. That is what made it so easy for the Edramelechs to capture us. Golieth is the leader for the other group, and as you will see, it appears that this Voldemort person managed to strike a deal with him," she explained. She snapped her finger again and the scene continued to play out.

It was as she said. It did really look like Voldemort made a deal or at least came to an understanding. He was very quick in getting out of there afterwards.

The scene continued and he watched as the Death Eaters worked on freeing the necklaces and put them in the boxes. He counted twelve in the black box and five in the white one. Then it was only Higgs left in the room and he could almost guess what would happen next.

And sure enough. He watched the man scream and the two others run in to see what was going on. When the scene came to where Higgs killed Wormtail with the knife Harry yelled, "Wait wait, stop!"

Jezzine snapped her finger and the scene froze, Higgs still holding the knife through Wormtails throat. She turned to him and looked questionably at him.

"So you just killed them? Just like that?" he asked her with an accusatory hint to his voice.

She rolled her eyes. "It had to be done. Besides, weren't they enemies of yours? I see that you personally knew this one," she said and motioned to Wormtail.

"You cant just kill people like that. Even if they are your enemies," he said and waved his hand around, as if this was an obvious thing.

"Trust me Harry. I did the world a favor. If you'd like I can show you some of Mr Higgs' other memories," she said and snapped her fingers.

The scene changed into that of a kitchen. It looked like there had recently been a fight. There were scorch marks on the white walls, probably made from a wand. Various pieces of table wear, broken or otherwise, lay spread out over the entire floor. The table had been reduced to rubble and some of the chairs were knocked over.

One chair though we're still standing. In it sat a bound man with a cloth in his mouth. The man was frantically jerking back and forth in an attempt to get lose. On the floor beside the man sat a little girl, can't have been more than eight or nine years old, also bound and gagged.

Over at the counter Harry could see Higgs and his eyes widened in shock, his blood freezing. It wasn't Higgs' presence that shocked him. It was what he was doing. He was holding a woman, presumably the bound mans wife, bent over the counter and was in the process of brutally raping her.

Harry was transfixed and couldn't look away, shocked to his very core. Higgs kept on thrusting and panting over and over, making grunting sounds every time he banged into her. The woman was screaming murder but there was no one coming to rescue her.

"Stop..." Harry whispered.

"No I think you need to see what these people, these monsters that you just told me that it was wrong to kill, like to do for fun," Jezzine said without even flinching at the scene. She wasn't smiling but she wasn't looking horrified either. It was like she was used to this, like she had seen it a million times.

It was clear that Higgs were getting closer by his increased panting. Suddenly he threw his head back and roared. He picked up a kitchen knife from the counter and swung it with all of his might at the woman's neck.

"No!" Harry screamed and threw himself at Higgs. He just passed through him like a ghost and crashed painfully into the counter.

The bound man screamed through his gag but it was no use.

There was a squelching sound when the knife hit the back of her skull. Instantly the woman stopped screaming and the kitchen became completely silent - the expression on the bound man's face frozen in ahock, his wide eyes locked at the still form of his wife.

Higgs took a step back and let the woman fall to the floor, knife still sticking out from the back of her head. He spat at the woman's corpse.

"Filthy muggles," he said and turned to the bound man. "Did you like that you piece of shit? Did you like it when I fucked your wife up the ass and stabbed her head?"

The bound man had such an intense rage in his eyes that Harry was sure he would remember forever.

"Now let's see what we can do with your little daughter here," Higgs said and turned to the bound little girl, a predatory grin on his face. The girl was crying and the bound man started to trash even more, he shook his head in plea for Higgs to stop.

"Okay stop! Seriously Jezzine! I get it!" Harry yelled at her. Rage etched all over his face. He felt like he was gonna throw up. This was sick. Why did she have to show him this?

Jezzine snapped her finger and the scene switched back to the room with Wormtail.

"Do you see now? This was only one of many, and I mean _many_, memories that Mr Higgs here were so gracious enough to store in his head, all mine for the taking," she said in a voice filled with rage, eyes blazing.

Her rage surprised him and he took an involuntary step backwards.

In a softer voice she continued, "Men like these doesn't deserve to live. In fact they deserve so much more than death. They have used up all their right to exist."

Harry just pressed his palms to his eyes and shook his head. "I guess I should thank you for Wormtail. Although Sirius might be sad that he didn't get a shot at him," he said.

"I'm sure," she said sarcastically. "I don't think we need to see more of this," she aaid and geatured around at the current scene. "What happened next is I tried to escape, got shot and dropped my friends. I looked in Mr Higgs memories for anything that I could use. What better than to seek out the enemy of my enemy?" she said and pointed straight at him. "Although I don't really get what the fuss about you is," she added as an afterthought.

He felt a little insulted at her remark but after what she'd just shown him he kinda got where she was coming from. He wasn't exactly a seasoned soldier, hardened by battle and impervious to certain things that would shock normal people to their core.

"So that's it, basically. What do you say?" she asked him, watching him expectantly.

What was she talking a bout?

"Say what? You still haven't told me what you want with me," Harry said.

She rolled her eyes and sighed. "Do you, or do you not, want to help me get my friends back and at the same time get rid of this Voldemort that seem to have it out for you?" she asked, her voice bored by his apparent lack of understanding.

He blinked. "Oh," was all he said.

The first thought he had was that this woman was crazy and that he should put as much distance between himself and her as possible. The second thought he had was that this might actually be the thing he'd been waiting for. He had been going the whole summer, frustrated by his lack of action, and now, out of nowhere, an opportunity to actively fight Voldemort literally falls from the sky. Could he even consider refusing?

But then again, this woman had threatened to essentially kill him if he didn't do as she said and helped her. Could he really trust her after that? He had a suspicion he wanted to check out before he made his decision.

"Say that I politely declined, what would happen to me then?" he asked cautiously.

She smiled brightly at him, flashing pearly white teeth, her eyes filled to the brim with sadistic joy. "Then I would crush your mind, take over your body and go fetch them myself. You seem like a powerful enough host," she said, her tone as happy as it could be.

_'Damn, she really is crazy.' _he thought. She just laughed maniacally at him. _'Oh right...'_

"Well in that case I don't see how I can refuse. But if we are leaving, where should we go? Also I have classes tomorrow so sneaking away would be hard," he said.

"Oh I've already seen to that. And I apologize," she said.

Confused, he asked "For what?"

"For this," she said and punched him in the stomach so hard that he doubled over. He lost all the air in his lungs and his stomach spasmed painfully. The pain blurred his viaion and everything faded away, leaving Jezzine's sadistic grin for last.

-.-.-.-

_Raising your sword against a child is like abandoning hope for the future. I raised my sword against a child once..._

-.-.-.-

-o-

When Harry next woke up he felt like shit. Sweat was pouring off him in waves and he felt dizzy even though he was still lying in his bed. As soon as he cracked open his eyes he winced at the bright light that made him feel even more sick. Someone was touching his forehead with something cold and it felt really nice.

"He's coming to, put out the lights," he heard a voice say, coming from somewhere above him.

Immediately the lights dimmed and he found that he could open his eyes slightly without wincing. Someone was looking down at him but he had trouble focusing. He needed his glasses and tried to say so, but his throat were too dry and whatever he tried to say ended up in a painful cough.

Something pressed against his lips and he could feel the cool sensation of water entering his mouth. He drank as much as he could without overdoing it. Finally he was able to speak somewhat,

"Glasses... need my..." he said in a raspy voice.

"Take it easy Harry, don't try to push yourself," the same voice as before said. He now recognized it as Hermione's voice, and sure enough, when he felt his glasses being pushed into place the first thing he saw was her bushy hair.

He was still lying in his bed in his dormitory but now there were a lot of people surrounding him. He could see not only Hermione but also Madame Pomfrey and Professor McGonagall standing around him.

"Wha' happened?" he asked.

"Severe case of fever. Worst i've seen in a long time. Miss Granger found you after missing first class," said Madame Pomfrey, holding up a vial and measuring some sickly green liquid into it. His stomach protested and he felt sicker just seeing the potion. He knew it was going to taste horrible. "Probably got something to do with your trip in the lake yesterday," she added.

At this Hermione looked sharply at him. "What trip in the lake?" she asked quickly. Harry sighed inwardly. Now she was going to be annoyed at him for not telling her right away.

"I'm sure Mr Potter will fill you in when he gets better," Madame Pomfrey said. "For now you should really get back to your class Miss Granger. I am more than capable of handling a simple fever, even a severe case like this," she continued while gently pushing Hermione to the side so she could administer the potion.

He was right about the potion. It tasted horrible. He had to force himself not to gag on it and throw it all back up.

"And as for you Mr Potter, you will have to miss classes today. I'm ordering you to stay in bed until dinner time at least. There's no need to move you to the hospital wing for a mere fever but if you feel it getting worse then call for a house elf to come get me," she said.

"Yes Miss Granger, go back to your charms class. Flitwick is probably wondering where his top student is. You can talk to Mr Potter later," Professor McGonagall said.

Hearing that Hermione had skipped class to come see him when he was sick made him feel very grateful towards her. He knew what classes meant to her and skipping one in concern for him reminded him of what a good friend she really was.

She looked at him with concern, biting her lower lip. "Okay Professor, I will. See you later Harry," she said and left.

"Take as much time as you need Mr Potter, I will inform the rest of your teachers," McGonagall said and for a moment Harry thought he could see concern on her usually stoic and no nonsense expression.

She bid him a speedy recovery and left after Heermione, leaving Harry alone with the nurse.

"Right then Mr Potter, drink this vial with your dinner this evening," she said and put a vial containing the same green liquid as he drank before on his nightstand. "I don't imagine you will be hungry for lunch today but if you can then I'd suggest you try to eat something. You can just call a house elf to bring your food. Is there anything else you need Mr Potter?" she continued, straightening the wet cloth on his forehead.

"No, thank you Madame Pomfrey," he said. He was actually feeling a lot better already. That potion must've been a real good one, he thought.

She nodded at him. "Then I will return to my ward. Again, if you feel it getting worse then don't hesitate to call an elf to get me," she said.

He nodded at her and she left him alone.

_'Great, a bloody fever, that's what must've caused this weird dream._' he thought to himself. And what a creepy dream it had been. He felt relieved that there wasn't a crazy woman living in his head but at the same time he felt sad about not getting to do something against Voldemort.

He had just resigned himself that he might as well go back to sleep when the woman from his dream shimmered into view next to his bed. It surprised him and he jerked into a sitting position so fast that he almost fell off the bed.

"Get up, sleepy. We have a lot to do," she said in a chippy voice.

He was flabbergasted. Had it been real? The same woman with the red dress and happy expression were clearly standing before him. None of his other nightmares used to greet him once he woke up. Maybe the fever were making him hallucinate?

She folded her arms and raised an eyebrow at him, frowning slightly. "Seriously? You wanna do this all over again? And stop being a wimp, you don't have a fever anymore. That was just something I cooked up to give you an excuse," she said.

He just blinked at her in stunned disbelief. As a matter of fact he did feel loads better. He wasn't sweating anymore and his head no longer hurt. He felt normal.

"Come on already!" she almost shouted at him.

It snapped him into action. He got up and quickly started to dress himself. When he was about to remove his pajamas bottoms he stopped, embarrassment setting in on his face. He just realized he was about to get almost naked in front of a very pretty woman who was watching him intensely. He turned to her and said, "Ehrm... Do you mind?"

She just shook her head in annoyance, clearly losing her temper. "I'm in your freaking mind! What you see, I see. What you see of me is actually me just tricking your brain. I'm not actually here," she said.

Still he squirmed and looked uncomfortable. It just felt really weird, her watching like that.

"Of for... " she said and threw her hands in the air and turned around.

Feeling a lot less awkward, Harry quickly finished dressing.

"You done? It's not like you've got something I haven't seen before, y'know?" she said, frustration still in her voice, and turned back to him.

He felt a little embarrassment over her statement but it was quickly replaced by anger. She was the one that came to him for help. And he couldn't bloody well know how all her little tricks worked.

He was just about to tell her just that when she sighed and spoke. "Ugh, you're right. I'm sorry. I just really want to get my friends back," she said.

He understood. If it had been Ron or Hermione he would probably act far less calm about it than Jezzine had so far.

"Okay seriously, I get it. But if we're going to do this together you gotta stop with the mind reading. Or at least stop responding to my thoughts before I have a chance of voicing them?" he said. It was getting old real fast.

She looked at him with a calculating gaze, as if reevaluating something. "Deal. I'm not used to interacting with my hosts and I apologize." she said.

He waved off her apology. "Don't worry about it," he said. "So what's the plan?" he added.

"The first thing we need to do is get out of this school. I sense something blocking traveling through it. Probably not a good idea to break through it anyway, might cause all kinds of havoc," she said.

Wait what, they were leaving straight away? "Hold on, I can't just leave like that without at least talking to my friends first," he said.

She closed her eyes and sighed, reigning in her annoyance. "it's just going to cause complications and waste time. Can't you leave them a note?" she said.

He thought about it. It would take a while to explain to his friends, much less making them believe it. On the other hand he kinda owed them to at least tell them that he was leaving.

He went over to his trunk and picked up a piece of parchment and ripped it in two. He thought about what he would write but couldn't settle on anything. 'Hey I met this woman who now lives in my head. She wants my help to free her friends from Voldemort, who by the way is more powerful than ever.' didn't exactly read well in his mind.

In the end he settled on a simple note. It would have to do until he could talk to them in person.

_Ron, Hermione,_

_I found something to do. Dunno when I will be back. Sorry. I'll explain as soon as I can. _

_Harry_

Staring at the awkward note in his hands he felt that it wasn't fair to them, leaving something like this. Folding it up anyway, he went over to Ron's bed and put it on his pillow. He went back to write on the second piece of parchment. This was going to be harder. He couldn't just leave things unresolved like that. What would he tell her?

"If you don't mind, I can probably help you here," Jezzine said, motioning towards the parchment.

Harry looked at her. Maybe she could help with this. She could read his mind after all so she knew how he felt about it.

"Alright, how?" he asked.

"Just write down what I'm saying," she said and proceeded to tell him what to write.

Once they were done Harry read through the parchment. "Isn't this a bit harsh?" he asked.

"From anyone but you, yes. Coming from you, it probably still would maker her hate you for a while, but in the end it would help her," she said and nodded. "Trust me on this,"

Harry just thought and read through the letter once more.

_Dear Cho_

_I'm really sorry for everything that has happened and for what I'm about to tell you in this letter._

_I don't know what you think we might have together but I'll tell you right now, it's would never work out. And somewhere inside you I think you realize this too. Not after what happened. Believe me if it had happened a year ago I would be more than happy to return your feelings, ecstatic even. As it is now I can't be sure if your feelings are genuine or if it's some remnant feelings for Cederic. I'm sorry. _

_I'm going away for a while and I just wanted to let you know how I feel. If I never see you again I wish you a happy life. _

_Harry_

It felt really harsh to him but it very neatly summed up his feelings. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her, but it was as Jezzine said, it would probably help her in the end. At least it would be better than just leaving things unresolved.

Feeling awkward about the whole thing but deciding that it would have to do, he folded the letter up and pulled out his wand. He used a spell Hermione had taught him to seal the letter so that only Cho could open it. He just knew that once Ron found the note he would instantly rip open Cho's letter as well. Hermione would make sure she got it. He scribbled Cho's name on the outside and laid it next to the other note.

"All set?" Jezzine asked.

"Almost," he said and strode over to his trunk again. He rummaged around and pulled out his invisibility cloak. He shrunk it down and pocketed it.

Drawing a sigh and taking one last look around he turned to Jezzine. "All done."

* * *

**A/N: **No Harry/Cho. Sorry if you wanted that. Feel free to leave a review if you have the time to spare. Feedback is always welcome. Thanks.


	4. Chapter Three - Sharkbait

**Bygones Reclaimed**  
Chapter Three - Sharkbait

Getting out of Hogwarts had been easy enough. Everyone was busy with classes so the corridors had been deserted. Harry and Jezzine had been able to just walk out the front gates, using Harry's invisibility cloak when crossing the grounds to not risk anyone seeing him from a window.

It felt weird for Harry, walking down the Hogsmead road, not intending to return to the castle once the day was over. He also felt sad about leaving his friends behind like that, they had been through so much together, but now he was going alone. He hoped he would get to see them again one day.

Now, on the verge of leaving, he thought that perhaps it would have been better to tell Dumbledore about the whole situation. He was far more experienced than Harry and would be able to help Jezzine get her friends back in a far more efficient manner. For a start, he would at least have an idea where to look.

But then again, he would have to go back to not being informed, to not having his wishes heard. No this was his chance to get away from all that and focus on what's important and that was defeating the enemy. A little ways down the road to Hogsmead they stopped when Jezzine told him that they were far enough from the school to travel.

Harry turned around and looked at the magnificent castle, committing the only place he ever called home into his memory. Even though he felt sad about leaving he also felt excited. Finally he would get to do something, to fight back, to bring the fight to Voldemort for once. It was an exhilarating feeling and he had a wide smile on his face when he asked Jezzine where they should go.

"When I examined Higgs' mind I couldn't see any place where this Voldemort might bring my friends. I don't think he was very high up in their ranks. I did find out that the place they found us at was located near a city called 'Venice'. I'm not quite sure if it's the same Venice as I remember. Before we were imprisoned the only Venice I knew of was a small but independent republic," she explained.

Harry had learned about Venice and its sinking state in his primary school, before he attended Hogwarts, but that didn't make sense. He remembered it being located in Italy, but how had Jezzine traveled from there to Britain in just a day? Portkeys didn't have that kind of range. Flitwick had taught them that in charms class.

"There's only one Venice I know of but that's located very far away. How did you get here so fast?" he asked her, not quite sure they were talking about the same place. What would Death Eaters do all the way in Italy?

"I used a portal of course," she said. At his befuddled expression she added, "You do know about portals right?"

He just shook his head and told her about their ways of traveling in the wizarding world.

"Really? I thought your people were close to finding out about them back in the 16th century. I worked with a man on a series of experiments and I was sure he would figure it out," she said.

He shook his head in disbelief again. "How old are you anyway?" he asked.

She gave him a big radiant smile, and for a moment he forgot what he asked. "Oh Harry, you should never ask a lady about her age. I guess it depends on how you look at it. Taking my age the day I got trapped in this necklace, and counting by the way of my people, I would be sixteen. Counting as yours, twenty one. If you count the years of my existence then I wouldn't know an exact number," she said. "Living this long changes you I guess but I like to think I'm still the same person deep down as was when this all started for me," she said. "I'm on my third Millennia at though," she added offhandedly.

He was stunned again. This woman kept saying things that made no sense to him, and should be impossible, yet appeared to be true. It annoyed him slightly. He didn't really know what to respond and said without thinking, "You're old."

She raised an eyebrow at him and he realized what he'd just said. "Err, I didn't mean... like that," he tried to say but got sidetracked, "Did Jesus really exist?" he blurted out.

She just looked at him for a moment, considering him. He felt like she was constantly evaluating him with these stares and judging by the look she gave him, he had just asked the wrong question.

"I'm sorry; it's just weird, talking to someone as old as you. You don't even talk like you're that old," he said, feeling stupid about the question.

"I guess that's because I'm always being influenced by my host, even now my English accent is turning more British by the minute," she explained.

That made sense, Harry thought. Having access to someone else's memories and experiences at a whim would probably change how you saw things.

"But let's focus now. I think we should go back to the place they found us, to see if there's any clues to where they might be. I doubt anyone's still around though," she continued.

"Alright," Harry said. "How are we going to get there, then?" he asked.

She smiled wickedly at him, that same smile that he'd come to recognize as an indication that something he wouldn't like we're about to happen. He was instantly worries about what she would say.

"The same way I got here. You are going to create a portal, and it's going to hurt, a lot," she said and laughed at his expression. "Don't worry, you won't get any lasting injuries."

He gulped. "I don't even know how to create a portkey, how am I supposed to create a portal?" he asked.

"Because we don't have time to actually teach you how to create one, I will control it. Even though your magic is similar to mine and capable, there is still quite a substantial difference. That's what's going to hurt. I'm basically going to force your magic into behaving like mine," she said.

Although he wasn't a stranger to pain, he couldn't really say he liked the idea. Still, it was faster than to actually use muggle means of travel, even if it were safer for him. And he was also a bit curious. From Jezzines description no other wizard had done anything like it before. He felt like he would accomplish something great in the history of magic, like Dumbledore and his twelve uses of dragon blood.

"Okay, what do I do?" he asked.

"Just close your eyes and focus on the picture I'm going to show you. Then I will take care of the rest. I'm going to control your movement a bit so don't freak out, the less you struggle the less it will hurt. It also helps if you trust me," she said.

He wasn't completely sure he could do the trusting part. All she'd done since they met had basically been to threaten him with crushing his mind and taking over his body if he didn't help her. Not exactly inspirational.

He nodded anyway and closed his eyes. Instantly an image popped into his mind. It was a picture of a camp located at the slope of a mountain, surrounded by thick forest. He wasn't sure but he thought this must've been the Death Eaters camp Jezzine had escaped from. He focused on the image, taking in as much detail as possible.

Almost immediately he started to feel a pressure build up behind his eyes. It wasn't painful yet, but the pressure kept building. He felt his wand arm start to move on itself and on pure instinct tried to retract it. Right away the pressure behind his eyes tripled and it was all he could do not to cry out in pain. It felt like someone was cleaving his head in two with a blunt axe. He remembered Jezzine telling him not fight it and pushed with an effort to force himself to relax. The pressure lessened to an almost tolerable level. Again his arm started to move on its own.

Never before had he felt his magic move inside him like this. It was a strange, sort of tingly feeling, like small needle pricks moving all over his body, almost on the verge of burning. He felt the magic travel along his arm and into his wand. His arm started to trace a circle in the air and his magic protested. The needle pin feeling increased and it started to feel like he was on fire, acid flowing through his veins. It was excruciating. Almost as bad as the _Cruciatus_ curse Voldemort had used on him last year.

His legs started to feel like they were made of jelly, wobbling back and forth, threatening to collapse at any second. A jolt shot through his arm, feeling very similar to the time Uncle Vernon had forced him to put his hand in an electrical outlet as punishment for coming home late. The twitching was unbearable and he had to struggle to hold his arm steady. Then, without any warning, his arm jerked in a swift motion and his magic surged from it, punching a hole through what felt like a brick wall. Then everything receded and it was over, he could once again move his body.

He had just enough time to open his eyes before his legs gave out and he fell to his knees. His heart was racing and he could feel every beat pound through his body. He was panting heavily and wanted nothing more than to close his eyes and pass out.

He saw Jezzine standing next to the newly created portal and smirk at him. "Snap out of it. It wasn't that bad. We need to hurry through before it closes and we have to do it all over again."

"Easy for you to say. You didn't just feel like you were burning up from the inside while having your head split in two," he muttered but nonetheless forced himself up on his feet and wobbled through the portal.

-.-.-.-

_The land of forgotten lies within the realm of Nowhere, and Nowhere resides in the world between worlds. It's what glues this world to the next and creates the moments in between._

_I have no idea what it means and it might just be a bunch of bullcrap, but that's what they told me._

_-.-.-.-_

-o-

The sensation he was feeling was like nothing he'd ever felt before. It felt like he was submerged in water, sliding all over his body, cold but not uncomfortable, yet feeling completely dry at the same time. Around him he could see nothing but faint shadows rushing by at an increasingly faster rate. A few moments passed and then Harry felt like he was breaking through the surface of a lake, fresh air filling his lungs and a refreshing feeling washing over him. He felt solid ground appearing under his feet and saw the scene he'd picture in his mind shimmer into view all around him.

He quite preferred this mode of traveling over portkey and floo. No horrible landing and no dust to clean off his clothes. Still he couldn't help but feel it an unnatural way to move. While he was traveling he got a sense that the world wasn't made to behave like that, like it was being ripped apart and defiled.

He turned around and looked for Jezzine but she wasn't there. Panic set in and for a moment he thought she'd tricked him and lured him into a trap.

_"Take it easy, I'm still here,"_ he heard Jezzine say. He spun around but still he couldn't see her.

"Where are you?" he asked.

_"For the sixth time, I'm-"_ she started to say in a frustration laced tone but was cut off.

"-In my mind," Harry finished, realizing that she was speaking directly into his mind. "Great, now people will think I'm really going crazy, talking to myself," he added.

_"If there is one thing I've realized over the years, then it's that sane is boring,"_ Jezzine said. _"And you technically don't have to speak out loud to me, thinking is enough."_

"Should've figured that out by now," he said in a barely audible mumble.

Ignoring his muttering and wanting to proceed, she said, _"Take a look around, it looks abandoned as I thought."_

Indeed it did look abandoned, and in a haste too. The remains of a fire was still smoldering in the center, the last few embers glowing an eerie orange color. Trash lay littered all over the place and Harry could smell a faint hint of Firewhiskey in the air. They probably spilled a bottle somewhere.

The ground was heavily trampled, like the Death Eaters had been there for a while. A heavily tracked trail was leading up the mountain slope to the north of the camp where Harry could make out the shape of a small cave opening.

Although it looked abandoned Harry couldn't shake the feeling that it might not be. It felt too easy - too much of a coincidence. Why would the Death Eaters just pack up and leave in a haste? Were they about to walk into a trap?

Being very careful, Harry made his way around the camp, sticking to the outskirts where he could hide behind trees and bushes. Crawling around, trying to stay hidden and ready for anything at the slightest provocation in combination with the high temperature made Harry sweat slightly. He could feel his heavy school robe sticking to his back, making it itch.

Coming full circle around the camp, it really did appear to be empty. Maybe he was just being paranoid.

_"The cave,"_ Jezzine said in a soft voice.

_'What if it's a trap?'_ he asked her, speaking in his mind.

_"I doubt it, but if it is we'll retreat, and if we can't, we'll fight."_ she said.

_'Just like that? I'm not really a good fighter,'_ he said, feeling a slight panic that he might soon find himself in a fight for his life.

_"Well there must have been a reason why this Voldemort guy thinks you are one of his greatest threats, and besides, I have a few tricks up my sleeve too. We'll be fine, it probably isn't even a trap,"_ she told him, urging him on.

Not feeling placated in the slightest, Harry slowly inched his way over to the cave entrance. Hiding behind the rubble of the initial explosions that the Death Eaters didn't bother to vanish, he managed to make it all the way to the cave without setting off any potential traps.

Looking down the dark cave he couldn't help but feel a slight chill running down his back. He just had a very bad feeling about this. Steeling himself he started to make his way down the uneven tunnel, moving at a slow pace and keeping his steps steady.

Coming up to the end of the tunnel he had to stop and conjure a ball of light to be able to see anything. It was a variation of the _Lumos_ spell that he had studied in preparation for the third task. Not having to maintain the light could have a significant advantage when in a fight had been Hermione's reasoning when she suggested it.

He entered the hall, and just like Voldemort he increased the power of the orb and let it fly up to the ceiling, illuminating the whole area. There was nothing in there other than two large bloodstains on the floor from where Harry knew Jezzine had killed Wormtail and another Death Eater.

He let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding and his heart rate slowed. It wasn't a trap after all. He had been so sure that it was going to be one that he had been going over every offensive spell that he knew while going down the tunnel. It just wasn't like Voldemort to not utilize an opportunity like this. He must have at least thought that there might be a slight chance that Jezzine would come back here.

"There's nothing here," he said out loud.

Jezzine shimmered into view next to him. "So it would seem," she said.

Harry looked around and thought that the place was really creepy. He imagined being stuck in here in complete darkness and shivered. "This is even creepier than when me and my friends were trying to find the philosopher's stone back in our first year," Harry mused out loud while examining the empty pedestals in the room.

Jezzine seemed to perk up at this, and quickly asked, "The Philosopher's Stone?"

"Yeah, some stone that gives eternal life, made by some guy named Nicolas Flamel. Used to be hidden in Hogwarts. Voldemort tried to steal it but we managed to stop him," he summed up while still examining the pedestals.

"Nicolas is alive?" she quickly asked, surprise in her voice.

"Wha... " he started and turned around. He had to take a step back in surprise. Jezzine was standing mere inches from him, staring at him with wide eyes.

"Nicholas Flamel, is he still alive?" she asked again in a demanding voice.

"Yes I thi-" he started to slowly say.

_"Schhhhh!"_ she hissed sharply, holding up one hand, looking like she was trying to hear something.

He listened but couldn't hear anything. What was going on?

"What's going-" he started.

"Shit shit, _SHIT!_" Jezzine burst out and quickly turned to the tunnel entrance. "How can he be here already."

Harry sensing something was about to happen quickly asked in a panicky voice, "How can _who_ be here?"

Her face changed from uncertain panick to determined and she turned to him. "Listen up Harry, we only have a moment. It is important that you do exactly as I say. A man is going to come through the tunnel at any moment and it is really important that you do not look scared, in fact, try to look as intimidating as you can. Then repeat every word I say, word for word," she said, her eyes burning with the same intensity as the first time they met.

He was just about to ask who was coming again when Jezzine turned from determined to furious. "Listen the _fuck up_! Do as I say or I will crush your weak pathetic mind in a second. I'm not going to be captured again." she practically roared at him.

This was bad, Harry could feel it. Seeing Jezzine react like that made him realize the importance of the situation. This wasn't lighthearted and easy going Jezzine that he'd gotten used to. She looked ready to pounce on him if he didn't do as she said, and at that moment he couldn't decide if he was more afraid of her or the thing coming to capture them.

His heart raced and his adrenaline started pumping. Damned if he was going to be captured, or worse. He'd give one hell of a fight before that happened.

"Fucking right you will," she growled and shimmered out of existence.

_"Now, go to the center of the room and look scary as hell,"_ she ordered him in his mind.

This was it. Whatever coming through that tunnel was not going to get him. He did his best Severus Snape scowl imitation and strode purposely to the center of the room. He pointed his wand towards the tunnel and waited.

The silence was deafening and the tension high. He felt like he would blow up anything that even twitched. He counted the seconds in his head, drawing in long breaths through his clenched teeth, waiting for something to happen.

Then, when he reached eleven seconds, he could hear sharp footsteps echoing down the tunnel. Louder and louder they grew the closer they came.

_Clip, clop. Clip, clop._

His heart beat faster and harder and he started to doubt that he could do this. He had no time for that though, since the source of the footsteps was walking through the opening right at that moment.

For a second Harry just stared, stunned in disbelief. He knew that guy! _'That's Antonin Dolohov, one of the Death Eaters who escaped from Azkaban!'_ Harry thought, remembering the article in the Daily Prophet a week ago.

He looked closer at Dolohov and indeed it was the same man he'd seen in the paper but with a few changed features. His hair was no longer black but instead a stark white color, and his eyes were sapphire blue instead of the brown color they had been in the picture. He still had the same wicked smile and the same calm craziness over him though.

_'Only he looks different,'_ he added.

_"I don't know who that man was, but he is no longer that man anymore. Pay attention now."_ Jezzine said.

Dolohov walked a few steps into the hall and stopped. He looked unbothered by Harry's attempt to look intimidating and just stood there, with his hands in the pockets of his gray trenchcoat, staring back at him.

_"Say nothing. Let him start."_ Jezzine told him.

He kept his silence and stony features in check, even though his feelings were raging wildly within him. His instincts told him to start pelting Dolohov with as many curses he could but he fought them down, trusting that Jezzine knew what she was doing.

Then Dolohov started to speak and Harry had to quench a shiver that came running down his spine. There was just something in his voice, something unnatural and creepy that made him feel cold inside, like when there was dementors nearby, just not as intense.

"Jezzine of the Seventh Sun, I thought I smelt your foul stench in here," Dolohov said, almost in a happy tone, while still wearing that wicked grin.

Jezzine then started to tell Harry what to say and he repeated her words exactly as she wanted. He tried his best not let his fear show and sound intimidating.

"Icienon, I'm glad to see you found a new host," Harry said in a drawling voice, holding his wand steady, not letting it waver even a millimeter from Dolohov's chest.

"Golieth said you would come back here. I told him nooo she can't be that stupid, can she? He kept on insisting though. Apparently he knows you better than I do. But that's to be expected, no?" Dolohov said and twisted around slightly to look around the room.

As he turned Harry could see something glinting in the crack of his trenchcoat. Taking a second to look closer he saw what he suspected. Another necklace. This man were no longer Antonin Dolohov, instead he was now this Icienon who Jezzine had referred to him as.

"Did he only send you? Doesn't he remember the last time we fought, Icienon? As I recall, you had to find yourself a new host after I so thoroughly destroyed it. And now you have just recovered from being locked away for so long. I can't imagine that improving your odds," Harry said at the prompting of Jezzine.

Icienon kept looking around the room for another moment before looking back at Harry, his impossibly wide grin growing even wider.

"This time it's going to be different. You've only had your host for a little while longer than I've had mine. And this time I have something that you don't," he said and slowly raised his right hand from his pocket. He held it up for Harry to see. On his middle finger sat a golden ring with a square ruby on it. Sure, it looked pretty but what did that have to do with anything?

_"Shit! How did he get a hold of one this fast,"_ Jezzine said in Harry's mind.

_'What is that?'_ Harry asked her, worried over Jezzines reaction to it.

_"It's what we use to channel our power. Short version, it's like your wand but designed for us,"_ she told him.

That can't be good, he thought. He had no idea what these people, or if he could even call them that, were capable of. He'd felt Jezzines power but that had only been in regards to him. He didn't actually know what she could do.

"I see you are lost for words and probably wondering where I managed to get one so soon? Let's just say that Golieth's new... _ally_... is very resourceful," Icienon said, drawing out the word as if it was something disgusting and improper.

"So it's as I though then. It's not like Golieth to make new friends, especially with a host. Is he getting soft?" Harry said in a taunting voice.

"I wouldn't know. I think he finds his new host fascinating. That reminds me... " Icienon said and put his hand back in his pocket and drew out something. "He asked me to return this to you. It really is fascinating what some of the stuff invented the past three hundred years can do to us. I don't think she managed to recover from the imprisonment though, she always was a bit too sensitive," he said and threw the object to Harry, who managed to catch it with one hand without looking away from Icienon.

"And I see you're integrating well with your new host. I don't think a schoolboy would be my first choice but you always were a little eccentric when it came to hosts," he added.

Harry held up the object so he didn't have to look away from Icienon, who were only standing there with his wide grin, looking expectedly back at him. Looking at the object Harry saw that it was another necklace, the one he remembered Jezzine touching in his mind when she showed him this place. The red gem didn't seem to glow as Jezzine's purple one did though. It just seemed dull and unresponsive to the light.

_"No! What did he do to her?"_ Harry heard Jezzine say in his mind as a feeling of despair rushed over him. He didn't think she meant for him to repeat that but did so anyway, not showing any of the emotions he felt coming from Jezzine. "What did he do to her?"

"Oh you know, a little bit of this and a little bit of that. In the end though it didn't take a lot. She was already going insane from being stuck in here for so long," Icienon said, sounding happy, like he was taking delight in telling them this.

Harry was starting to get mad and wanted nothing more than to start throwing curses. He was about to suggest that to Jezzine when Icienon spoke again.

"But I think it's time we get going back to the others. Golieth is very eager to speak with you," Icienon said and started to walk towards him.

Here Harry's lips twisted into a wicked grin of his own that made Icienon pause. "Oh dear, dear Icienon. After all this time you still have a lot to learn. Ring or no ring, I am still the best of us. Come at me if you think you can take me, because the only way you're getting me with you is if you kill my host first," Harry said, repeating Jezzines words, not really getting what she was trying to do. Wasn't the point of this charade to get out of here alive?

This made Icienon finally lose his crazy grin and replace it with a deep scowl. Lightning fast he pulled back his hand and swung it as if he were throwing a ball at Harry. Instead of a ball though, a spike made of what looked like ice or glass came rushing towards his head. Only his Quidditch reflexes and the many bludgers he'd had to evade over the years made him able to turn his head in time to dodge it.

He could feel the cold radiating from the projectile as it passed his chin, the swishing sound stinging his ear._ 'So ice then,'_ he thought. He barely heard it collide with the wall behind him as he threw himself to the side, avoiding the next ice spike coming at him. He was only focused on one thing - not getting hit. His fears were completely pushed to the side by adrenaline and survival instincts.

Landing on his side he grimaced as his elbow hit the ground hard. He didn't stop to check for any damage though because at that same moment he saw Icienon throw two more spikes his way. He scrambled forward, managing to get behind one of the thick stone pillars in the room, but as he did he felt his robes tear at his legs and a sharp pain told him that one of the spikes had managed to graze him. Gritting his teeth at the pain, he managed not cry out.

Now completely behind cover, Icienon took the opportunity to taunt them. "Come on Jezzine! You never hide from a fight, are you that sure you're going to lose?" he shouted and threw a few more spikes at the pillar. They shattered uselessly against the stone.

_'What do we do?'_ Harry asked in his mind, panic setting in.

_"I would take over your body but I don't know if you'd survive that. I don't want to use that option quite yet,"_ she told him.

While glad that she wasn't going to do that, he was a bit peeved that she was even considering it.

_"If you know any way to protect yourself then do that, then hold up one of your hands as if you are going to catch one of his spikes,"_ she added.

_'What? Are you crazy? Those things will go right through my hand!'_ he told her, thinking that was the worst idea she could come up with.

_"Just fucking do it!"_ she roared at him.

_'Shit!'_ he thought and prepared himself. Using the only shield charm he knew, _Protego_, to create a thin shield of energy floating in front of him, he took a large step out from the pillar. There was no time to react, as soon as he stepped out the first ice spike collided with his shield and shattered with a crash, sending small ice shards in all directions. His shield faded on impact and Harry cried out as a few shards embedded themselves in his chin right below his left eye.

Ignoring the pain and the feeling of blood running down his face he quickly regained his balance and cast another shield. The next spike was already coming at him and he only had a second before it would crash into his shield. Without thinking he raised his hand as Jezzine told him to, preparing himself for the unimaginable pain that was sure to come.

Instead of pain something else happened though. Shock and surprise struck him when the spike stopped midair, only a few inches from his hand, the razor sharp point glinting dangerously in the light as it hovered still. His surprise grew when the spike rotated and shot straight back at Icienon, it's speed even greater than before.

Harry saw Icienon's eyes widen in surprise a split second before the spike struck him right in the stomach, burrowing itself all the way through. Apparently Harry wasn't the only one not expecting that to happen. The force of the impact pushed Icienon back and he crashed into the wall behind him. With his eyes still wide and his mouth opened in disbelief he slid down against the wall, sitting with his back leaning on on it to support himself.

To Harry's disturbance all he did was lean his head back and cackle madly, sending that same feeling of cold rushing through Harry's body again.

"Oh Jezzine! Golieth is going to be so disappointed in you. Actually collaborating with a human, and a mere school boy to boot! You are just too good!" he screamed in between his maniacal cackles.

_"Now Harry! Use your magic!"_ Jezzine shouted in his mind.

He thought of the best offensive spell for immobile targets and shouted, "Reducto!" and aimed for Icienon's leg to incapacitate him.

The spell connected right below the kneecap and shattered it. Blood and gore sprayed in all directions, painting parts of the floor and wall closest to Icienon a crimson red, and while Harry had seen blood before he still had to force himself not to retch. Icienon seemed unaffected by it though, not even flinching as his leg got separated from his body.

"Well it looks like I underestimated you again, Jezzine," he said. "And you boy, I feel sorry for you. You have no idea what she is capable of. Ask her about 1588 if you don't believe me," he added, addressing Harry this time.

_"Harry, quickly! Aim for his head!" _Jezzine said.

He hesitated. He couldn't just kill him like that when he was down. But that wasn't a living person anymore. Dolohov wasn't there and Icienon wouldn't die even if he killed his host. He saw Icienon reach for something in his pocket and quickly shot another Reducto at him, this time aimed at his head.

It was too late, however. The Reducto just hit the wall where Icienon had been a split second before, blasting a quaffle sized hole in it. Before Harry had a chance to reflect over what had happened Jezzine appeared next to him.

"Dammit! Why did you hesitate? We had him!" she said furiously.

Okay, that was it! He felt bad about letting Icienon get away but at the time he was even more angry with Jezzine. Still influenced by adrenaline he turned to her. "Because I didn't want to kill him! Because I'm no fucking murderer like you seem to be!" he shouted at her.

Raising to the challenge she turned to him as well, eyes blazing. "You'd be doing that man a favor. He no longer exists. It's only his body, controlled by a psychopath! You only get one shot at this. We had a chance because he didn't know that I hadn't taken over your body," she said.

"Yeah, I figured that out. Thank you by the way, for informing me that ice throwing maniacs were coming after us. Made it a whole lot easier to prepare myself for that!" he said, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

"Don't mention it," she said through gritted teeth.

"Why are you even doing this? It doesn't even seem like you want or even need my help. Why not just crush my mind like you've said from the start that you would do? Wouldn't it be easier for you?" he challenged her. He was tired of her bossing him around, not saying what she really wanted with him. It was clear that she was more powerful on her own. It didn't make sense.

She raised her hand as if to slap him, her burning eyes increasing in intensity, and for a moment he thought she was actually going to do it. Then suddenly she completely changed. All her fire left her and she looked down at the ground, not meeting his gaze.

"I... It's not... that simple," she said in a low voice.

Still fueled by righteous anger, Harry said, "Well from what you've told me it would be the simplest thing in the world for you to crush my 'weak and pathetic' mind. That was the words you used, right?"

She actually looked ashamed by his words, mumbling something that he didn't quite get.

"What's that? Is my mind too weak to understand what you're saying or am I just not that important to speak clearly to?" Harry said, banging his hand against his head.

She looked up, straight into his eyes. What he saw made his temper melt away. There was despair and a deep sadness within them that made him almost recoil. "I don't want to be that person anymore," she simply said with emotionless voice.

He didn't know what to say. At first she had been acting like a spoiled kid with too much money, used to getting her way. Then, just a moment ago when they were fighting, she had acted so ruthless and cold. Was that what she'd become to survive all those years? And now she was telling him that she didn't want to be like that anymore.

"What changed?" he asked her, temper and edge all gone from his voice.

She gestured around with her arm. "This. Being stuck here. Her," she said and motioned towards the pocket in which Harry had put the necklace Icienon threw at him. He picked it up and held it out.

She looked at it with sadness. "All of us lost our faith at least once over the years. We would forget who we were and where we came from, because to us it was pointless. There was nothing to live for. When it happened we all reacted in different ways. Some just became depressed while others went out on a rampage. Because who would stop us? Who would make us pay for our crimes?" she said.

She reached out to touch the necklace but her hand just slid through it. She let it fall to her side and her expression changed to cold indifference.

"Her name was... is… Cilou. She was the only one who never lost her way, never forgot what it meant to live. She was younger than me when it all began. We were best friends before her father died and she had to take up his role of leadership within our people. She was the youngest one to ever be a part of the eighteen and everyone expected a lot from her," she continued with the same emotionless voice.

"Before we were captured I had lost my faith. Everything was pointless and I was causing trouble just to see what would happen, for my own amusement. Then right before the Edramelech found us Cilou helped me. She has a rather unique skill and with it she made me remember. Remember how life used to be. She believes our home is still out there somewhere, that it somehow just got lost," she said.

She moved her gaze from the necklace to meet Harry's eyes. Her feelings were impossible to discern through the indifference they portrayed.

"She made me believe too. Because without belief, what is there to live for?" she finished.

He nodded slowly, contemplating what she'd told him. He thought he understood now, at least somewhat. He could never imagine what it would be like to live for so long, knowing that almost everyone you knew would eventually die and you wouldn't.

"What do you think is wrong with her?" he asked, nodding to the necklace in his hand.

"Insane from being stuck here and from whatever they did to her. I can sense her rambling thoughts and as you touch it she is madly trying to attach herself to your mind," she said.

When she said that he almost dropped the necklace in fright, but managed to stop himself. This was someone very close to Jezzine after all. Instead he pocketed it again, thinking that it would be disrespectful to just drop it on the ground.

"Don't worry. I'm holding her at bay," Jezzine said when she saw Harry's reaction.

Relieved that he wasn't going to get another woman, this time literally crazy, living in his mind he asked, "What do we do now?"

She looked at him again like she was evaluating him again, trying to decide upon something. After a short moment she spoke. "We leave this place and find me another host. Then we get you back to Hogwarts. I'm sorry I forced you to do this," she said.

Wait, go back to Hogwarts? Could he even do that? Sure he had been mad at Jezzine for forcing him along but at the same time it's what he wanted. His friends had surly found the note by now and waltzing back in saying, 'Sorry it was all just a joke. I just had to use the bathroom for a really long time,' wouldn't really work.

And now when Voldemort was more powerful than ever should he really leave it to Dumbledore and the ministry to handle? No he couldn't do that.

"I want to stay," he said. "There's too much at stake for me to turn around now."

She looked at him again, evaluating him once more. "Are you sure? Today we were just lucky enough to surprise Icienon but that will only work once. Next time we need to be prepared. _You_ need to be prepared," she told him.

He thought about it. He always thought that he was pretty skilled for his age but fighting Voldemort last year and now Icienon had showed him that he wasn't even close to their caliber. He needed to learn how to fight for real. Hogwarts would teach him that but this was on a whole different level. He didn't think he could learn how to fight enemies the likes of Icienon or Voldemort in a classroom.

"There is no room for hesitation and you must be ready to do whatever you need to, even kill someone," she added when she noticed his indecision.

"Will you help me? Teach me how to survive and fight?" he asked her.

"I have to. Otherwise the next time we encounter Icienon or one of the others you will get killed and I will get captured," she said.

"Then I will do it," he said, determination settings in on his face.

She nodded and once again let a smile slide back on her face. "Then the first thing we need to do is get out of here and find another ring, like the one Icienon had," she said.

"Where can we find one?" he asked.

Jezzine smiled wickedly at him and he knew he wasn't going to like this. He gulped and prepared himself.

"How good are you at robbing a jewelry store?"

-o-

In a cramped room, lit only by the soft glow of several computer screens, located where no man could walk and no bird could fly, a lone woman was doing her job. Her desk was clean and immaculate, everything on it aligned with impeccable precision, indicating that it's owner was a bit of a neat freak. In the trashcan under her desk lay a crumpled up container of Diet Shake, the only visible sign of personality in the room. The woman herself wore a business suit that was as clean and straight as the rest of the room.

She was watching the screens on her desk intensely, trying to keep up with all the text that kept appearing, occasionally pushing a few buttons on her keyboard. It was clear that she had been doing this for a long time without break.

She was so used to this norm that she froze in confusion when a soft beeping sound reached her ears. She turned her head in every direction to locate the source but saw nothing. Nothing had ever broken her routine before and it unnerved her.

Swirling the seat around she spotted the culprit. On the wall behind her hung a lot of wires and various technological equipment. It was hard to actually see the wall for all the things hanging on it. Behind a series of yellow wires taped together she could see a soft red light, blinking in time with the beeps.

She got up and walked over to investigate. Pulling the wires to the side she saw that one of the old sensory lights was blinking. Frowning slightly she read the fading label that seemed to have been glued on in a hurry under the blinking light. "ALP114" it read.

That was weird, she thought. These lights had only been moved from the old facility because some weird protocol said so. She had no idea what they were used for and would have ignored it if it weren't for the word 'important' that someone had scribbled next to the label.

She clicked a button on her headset, brushing back a lock of red hair to reach it. She tapped a few buttons on her keyboard and waited. Then someone picked up on the other side and spoke. _"What is it, Miss Richards?"_ said a deep male voice.

"I'm sorry to disturb you, sir, but one of the old sensory lights from the old facility has gone off. I wasn't going to bother you sir, but someone scribbled the word 'important' next to it. I just thought I'd check with you before I dismiss it," the woman said, her voice speaking in soft tones, almost flowing like a song.

_"It's probably nothing. Log it and schedule someone to come down there and remove those lights. They haven't been used in ages,"_ the voice on the other side said.

"Yes sir. Very good sir," she said and was just about to close the connection on the other side when the person spoke again.

_"Just out of curiosity, what was the codename for the sensor location?"_ he said.

She turned around to read the label again. "A. L. P 114." she read out loud.

_"Hmm A. L. P.? Sounds familiar. Hang on a sec,"_ the man said and the line went silent for a moment. _"Let's see, I have the file here, but that's weird, it's labeled as classified. I have clearance to view it though. Hold on," _he continued.

She sat up straight in her chair, her interest piqued. Why would such an old sensor be classified?

The man on the other line came back, cleared his throat, and started to read from the file. _"A. L. P. Is actually not an acronym. Alp location 114 located in northern Italy and… "_ he said and trailed off.

"And what, sir?" she asked but got no answer. She almost thought the line had died when the man spoke again.

"_Nichole, send a team there immediately. This is of utmost importance. How could we let something like this be forgotten."_ he said in a far more authoritative tone.

Knowing not to ask questions when her boss talked like that she replied, "Yes sir. We have a ready-team standing by in Venice. I will dispatch them immediately," she said.

"_I'm transferring the file with the location to you now. Let me know as soon as you hear back from them,"_ the man said abruptly and then the connection broke.

Her eyes went wide when she saw the title of the file.

It read, 'Prison Report: Last survivors of Allestia.'

* * *

**A/N: **Thanks for reading. I have a few more chapters already written and to speed up the posting process I've decided to look for a beta. If you are interested then feel free to PM me. I would prefer if you have done something similar before.


	5. Chapter Four - Stirring Trouble

**Bygones Reclaimed  
Chapter Four - Stirring Trouble**

"You know, I have gold in my vault. We don't have to do this," Harry said after having to confund the third security guard that night.

"I know. You've said that already. And as I've answered the previous four times, don't you think they have someone watching the bank?" Jezzine answered, closing her eyes in resigned frustration. "And besides, I never really liked goblins."

"I'm just saying. This could all have been so much easier. No sneaking, no avoiding alarms and cameras, no cunfunding guards. We could just walk in, ask if they had rubies for sale, and be out of there in no time," Harry continued, casting an _Alohomora_ spell to open a jewelry cabinet.

"It's not my fault that these stores don't stock real rubies. Before we were captured there wasn't even such a thing as 'synthetic' rubies," she said and walked over to another display case. "Check over here."

He walked over to the display case, almost knocking down another display with expensive wristwatches. He swore but managed to catch it at the last second. The light from the weak _Lumos_ spell wasn't enough to properly navigate in the darkness, just enough to distinguish between the different gemstones.

Finally managing to make his way there without any more mishaps, he asked, "And remind me again, why can't we use synthetic ones?"

"_Because_," she said—putting extra emphasis on the word, "They don't work as good as regular ones. I can sense it when you touch them."

"Alright, alright. I just hope we don't get caught. I'm guessing we're breaking at least a dozen laws doing this, and that's not even counting muggle laws," he said while running his hand over all the jewelry with red gems in them.

"Laws are made to be broken, get over it," she said.

He just shook his head. "That's what's wrong with you. This isn't the sixteenth century anymore. Laws have bigger—" he said but was cut off.

"There! Back one," she said.

He touched the silver brooch made in the shape of a star. In the middle of it was a circular red gemstone.

"Yeah, that's the one," she added when he put his finger on it.

Relieved that they had finally found what they came for he mumbled, "Finally."

"Grab it and let's go," she said, ignoring his remark.

He pocketed the brooch and turned around. "As long as we're robbing stores and all, do we need anything else while we're at it?"

She scrunched up her nose at him. "Stop being cheeky—we're done. We already got the gold in the first store. Let's go," she said.

Harry started to make his way towards the back where the window they had climbed through was still propped open. On his way he bumped into the same display case with watches as before, this time however, he wasn't able to catch it in time. His blood froze in the split second between the moment he realized what was about to happen and the moment when it actually happened.

With a resounding crash the display hit the floor, sending broken glass and watches all over the floor. He cringed at the noise and held his breath, waiting to see if the alarm would go off. After five seconds of silence he exhaled slowly in relief.

"I think we're sa—" was all he got out before an ear splitting siren went off. The crash must have been too much for his _Immobulus_ charm on the alarm to handle. A second later he realized that meant that the security cameras were working again and quickly pulled his hood over his head.

"Of all the bloody... We need to go now!" Jezzine shouted over the blaring alarm.

He ran to the back room, almost knocking over several more displays. The window he'd used to get in was still open and he quickly climbed up on the desk in front of it. He was halfway out when he felt someone grab his legs and pull him back in. Whoever was pulling him didn't stop once he was inside and continued to drag him off the desk, making him hit his head on the wooden desk chair on his way down. His vision went blurry and he had trouble orienting himself.

"You're not going anywhere, asshole," he heard his attacker yell over the alarm.

He tried to spin around but he was too dizzy from the impact. Feeling his attacker reach for his arms he realized that it must be the patrolling security guard that he confounded. The alarm going off must have been too much for a simple _Confundus_ spell to handle.

He couldn't get caught here. Fudge would use it against him as proof that he was crazy and get him locked up in St. Mungo's or worse, Azkaban. Kicking out with his feet he was rewarded by a heavy grunt and a moment of freedom for his arms. He used the moment to push himself around so he was lying on his back.

The security guard was lying on his side clutching his crotch. Obviously he had hit the jackpot with that kick. Seeing that Harry was about to get up the security guard ignored the pain and lunged for him again, landing on top of him. Harry, who still had his wand gripped tightly in his hand, managed to jab it into the security guards stomach and yell out a muffled Stupefy.

Instantly the guard slackened and stopped struggling. It took considerable effort but Harry managed to push the much larger man's dead weight off of him. He didn't stop to reflect over what he'd done; instead he quickly climbed the desk again and got out the window.

He quickly turned down a dark alleyway when he heard police sirens approaching in the distance. Knowing that he needed to put some distance between him and the shop he kept on sprinting full force through the small labyrinth of alleys.

_'That was close,'_ he thought.

_"Very. You used a spell on camera though. Even if the muggles don't recognize it for what it is we're most probably going to have Aurors looking for us,"_ Jezzine answered. _"We need a place to hide for the night."_

He quickly cut across a road, prompting the rushing cars to honk and screech as their drivers stepped on the breaks.

_'Can't we just use a portal to get far away from here?'_ he asked.

_"Too risky. Besides, all the locations I know of must have changed severely over the last three hundred years. Won't be able to get an accurate image,"_ she answered. _"What we need to do is stay relatively close by but out of sight. No one would expect it."_

_'Unless they expect us to do just that,'_ he said while climbing over a fence.

_"Whatever. The more obvious location the better. If they do come knocking we won't be defenseless. We have the ruby now,"_ she said.

"Obvious, you say?" he whispered out loud, trying to think of a place. It had started to rain while he was running and his robe was starting to get damp. Soon it would be soaked and he would start to freeze. They needed to find someplace dry and warm to hide.

Coming up to where two alleys crossed each other he stopped to think. The most obvious place would be the Leaky Cauldron. It wasn't that far away and he knew the way but he felt that it would be a bit too obvious, as far as obvious goes that is. The answer came to him when he looked down the alley to his left.

It opened up to one of the larger streets with a lot of passing cars. It wasn't the road he was interested in though. It was what was lying on the other side of the road. In bright glowing neon letters the word 'Hotel' were written on the building, casting its soft blue glow down on the dark sidewalk. It looked to be a cheap and crummy place from the outside. Even the letter 'e' in the word hotel was broken and no longer glowing.

Deciding that it was better than the rain and after silently asking for Jezzine's approval he quickly made his way there. A quick _Confundus_ charm later and he was booked for the night.

-o-

The room they got was exactly like Harry had thought it would be—cheap and crummy. The yellow wallpaper were faded in several places and on one of the walls was a large—wet looking—stain that Harry was decidedly not interested in finding out what had caused.

Only half of the lights in the room seemed to be working but that was alright. He wasn't looking for a long term place to stay anyway. The bed looked clean and newly made but he still cast a few _Scourgify_ spells on it to be safe.

Sitting cross legged on the bed he pulled out the silver brooch and a golden chain that he had swiped in the first store they had gone to. He looked closely at the brooch, only glancing slightly at Jezzine as she shimmered into view next to him.

"it's certainly no luxury suite but it'll do," she said while looking around.

"I guess," he answered, still looking at the brooch.

She saw what he was looking at and nodded. "We should start to forge that ring right away. Just in case," she said.

With his curiosity piqued he looked at her and asked, "How do we do that?"

This was the first time he would find out something about Jezzine's powers outside of a life threatening situation and it was a little exciting for him. Remembering what had happened in the fight with Icienon made him wondered what else she could do.

"That's the easy part. All you have to do is hold the gold and the ruby in your hands and focus your magic into them. I will handle the actual forging," she said and took a seat on the bed. Harry noticed that the bed didn't shift as she sat down—an eerie reminder that she wasn't physically there in front of him.

"My power and your power will bond and be imbued into the ring. It will only ever respond to us. Doing it this way we will become stronger than any of the others," she continued.

"How would that make us stronger? Isn't the ring just so you can focus your power?" he asked.

"By combining our power during the forging we gain a few advantages. You see, by crushing the minds of our hosts we essentially take over their body and use it as our own. We also have the ability to manipulate the body in certain ways. Release adrenaline to boost reflexes, enhance vision to see more clearly, stuff like that. It's the easier choice for us, we gain a body and can use it and its powers freely," she explained.

He had figured out most of this already and didn't see what advantages they would get by bonding their powers. It seemed to him that the smart choice would be to take over someone's body and get rid of any distractions. He was about to voice his thoughts when he saw that Jezzine wasn't finished.

"But, and it's a big but, in the end it's still someone else's body. And however long we adjust to it we can never attain the same control over it as its original owner. We will never be able to reach the same level of proficiency in any field that the original owner had the potential to. And here's where bonding our powers will benefit us greatly," she said and reached out her hand, holding it palm up under Harry's hand still holding the brooch.

He felt something stir deep within him. It was the same tingly feeling he got when they were opening a portal, just less intense and not as painful. The brooch in his hand seemed to come alive and hover a few inches above his hand. The brooch seemed to respond to his thoughts, floating left when he wanted it to and right when he wanted that. He knew that he wasn't the one doing it but it sure felt like it. The control he felt over the brooch was intoxicating.

"Right now I'm actively willing my power to obey you. You can feel it coursing through your body. Anything you wanted it to do, at this moment, it would do," she said.

He could feel it, something immense and powerful running through him, just waiting for him to command it. It filled his every vein with a burning desire to use it, use it to vanquish his enemies and protect his friends. With this power he would be able to easily defeat Voldemort and anyone else standing in his way. His will would become law and anyone standing against him would perish.

Then Jezzine lowered her hand and the brooch fell limply to the bed. The feeling of power instantly vanished and he felt like something had been stolen from him. He wanted it back, his body craving it. It scared him how addicted and consumed he became in such a short time of controlling this great power.

"But remember, just like we would never be able to utilize a body to its fullest capabilities, you would never be able to wield our power to its greatest. Not like this anyway," she said.

"But there is a way?" he asked eagerly.

"That is what the bonding would do. It would give you access to my power as if it were your own. What this would mean is; you would have the potential to excel with not only your own abilities but also with mine," she answered.

This was great. He couldn't see how they could possibly lose now. No one would be able to stop them. All they needed to do was to find Voldemort and he could end it. It almost felt too good to be true.

"However," Jezzine said.

His heart fell, here it was. Of course it was too good to be true. If it was that simple why hadn't Jezzine done this before and avoided capture in the first place. Surely, with the power he felt, it would be an easy thing to evade, or outright defeat, any potential enemies.

"However," she repeated, hearing his thought process but not commenting on them, per their agreement. "There are a few disadvantages too that could make it harder for us. But if we can overcome those then we should be able to both achieve our goals."

A little wary about the answer, he still asked, "And what are those disadvantages?"

"For one, we need to be together for you to use my power. If we somehow get separated then you will only be able to use a very small amount of my power that will remain in you for a time, like a footprint," she said.

That didn't seem much like a disadvantage to him. In fact it sounded more like an advantage. It would give him an edge if that would ever happen.

"Once our powers bond you will see an increase in your own magic too. Your body will get used to my power mixing with yours. So if we would get separated and my power disappears then you would find it hard or even impossible to cast even the simplest spells, at least for a while," she continued.

And there was the kicker. This would mean that he would be essentially defenseless if he got separated from Jezzine's necklace. That was definitely a disadvantage.

"You would also have to learn how to wield my power from scratch. I will be able to force your body in an emergency but it will hurt you. Your body needs to train itself to use it slowly. There are a few more disadvantages but nothing major," she said and for a second Harry thought he noticed a bit of hesitation in her voice.

Thinking that there might be something she wasn't telling him he warily asked, "And would that be permanent, the part where I can't use my own powers?"

She looked a little uncomfortable but still said, "No," and in a much quieter voice added, "At least I don't think so."

He raised his eyebrows at her. "What do you mean by that?"

"Look okay, I've only done this once before and my host at the time wasn't exactly willing. I threatened her just like I did you. I would imagine that changing some stuff. I can't say I know for sure what the long term effects would be. She... died... before we really had a chance to test out how this work," she said and looked down at the end.

He realized that she was hiding something from him but he also didn't think she was outright lying to him. It sounded like she was ashamed of something so he decided not to push her further on the subject.

"So what you're saying is that you don't know what might happen to me if we do this," he asked her. "I'm not quite sure I like that."

She shook her head. "I know that it would make us stronger than if we didn't do it like this. I know that we would have a real chance at beating our enemies. I just don't know exactly what it would do to you a year from now, or months for that matter. It's all very theoretic at this point," she said.

The room became silent as he thought it over. It would give him a chance to end Voldemort forever, but at what cost? And would it really matter? How long would it be until the next Dark Lord rose to power, and would he still be around to have a chance at stopping that too? And from what Jezzine told him, Voldemort wasn't even their greatest threat anymore.

"Let's do it," he suddenly said.

She looked sharply at him, her gaze boring deep into his eyes while she considered him once again. She narrowed her eyes slightly, a curl of black hair partially covering one eye. He wished that he could reach out and push it out of the way. After a moment of silence she asked, "Are you sure?"

He met her eyes defiantly and said in a strong voice filled with conviction, "Yeah. I'm sure."

In the end, when he really thought about it, there really wasn't a choice to make. It would be selfish to even consider refusing. He would be glad to sacrifice himself if it meant that his friends would live safely. If it meant that he could rid the world of Voldemort he would do almost anything.

He picked up the brooch and the golden chain and held them in his cupped hands. Still a bit wary about the process he asked, "Will it hurt?"

She smiled at him. Not the care free, wicked and almost a little sadistic smile that he'd come to expect from her. It was a warm and kind smile that made him feel slightly hot around his cheeks.

"Sadly, no, it won't hurt you. In fact, I think you'll quite enjoy it," she said, her eyes shining with something he hadn't seen from her before and he wasn't quite sure what it was. It made him slightly blush though.

She rearranged herself on the bed so that they were facing each other, her hands outstretched, hovering just an inch above Harry's. Her eyes firmly locked to his, making him blush even deeper at the intensity of her gaze.

Whispering softly in a voice that made a chill run down his spine, she said, "Close your eyes and focus your magic."

He did as instructed. Never before had he actively focused his magic into something other than his wand but he found it a surprisingly easy thing to do. If it was because of Jezzine's presence or if he did it all by himself he didn't know. He suspected that the former had at least something to do with it.

He started to feel a heat emanating from somewhere above his hands and figured it was Jezzine's power. The heat felt somehow welcoming, like the heat from a fireplace on a cold winter night. He could feel how the heat was absorbed into the jewelry and mix with his magic. It was like two storms crashing together to create a tornado of raw power.

The heat kept growing and growing as Jezzine's power increased. He tried to match her with his power but it was impossible to keep up. Her power overwhelmed him and started to absorb into his hands as well. It slowly spread along his arms and out into the rest of his body. Wild and unrestrained, the storm raged within him. A warm, welcoming and intoxicating storm.

He felt like he would be lost in the storm forever and found that he wouldn't mind that. He never wanted it to end. Then suddenly he felt something new. Feather light and just as soft he felt something touch his hands, something very similar to the feel of skin. It startled him and he almost lost his concentration.

_"It's alright, it's just me,"_ he heard Jezzine's voice say soothingly in his mind. It relaxed him and he regained his focus. The touch of Jezzine's hand reappeared on his and he could feel the warmth from it. He didn't know how it was possible but he didn't dare to open his for fear of breaking the contact.

She was holding her hands above his and together their hands created a sphere around the jewelry. He could feel the pieces move around in there, reshaping and reforming themselves.

Then suddenly she was there, within him. He could feel her not only in his mind but throughout his entire body. Sensations and feelings he had never felt before flooded his senses. He was unable to move or even think. Images started to flash in his mind, changing rapidly.

-o-

A little girl with black hair and a small pair of white feathery wings was walking down a road. She was holding a woman's hand, clinging to it for dear life. He couldn't make out the woman's features, or any of the people passing them on the road.

Then it switched to an image of another woman. She had brown hair and bright auburn eyes, almost orange in color. On her back she had a big pair of white wings. She was smiling and holding out her hand towards him. He knew this woman to be his mother.

Then the scene switched again. It was the same girl from the first scene but now she was a little older. She was sitting under an apple tree with her head covered in her knees. She was crying, shaking slightly from the sobbing. He felt her sadness and somehow knew why she was crying. Someone had made fun of her because of her wings.

The image flickered and the scene changed. It was the same girl sitting under the same apple tree. This time she was older yet again, somewhere in her early teens. Instead of crying she was now reading a book and eating one of the juicy looking red apples from the tree. He felt drawn to the red apples and that's why he decided to wear a red dress that day. _Wait what?_

There was a crack accompanied by a flash and the scene changed again. This time he was standing on top of a tall building, looking out over a vast city. He didn't recognize the city or even the buildings in it. The sun was about to set and its last golden rays shone over the circular buildings, casting long shadows on the streets below.

He looked down at his hand. On the middle finger of his petite and slender hand sat a golden ring adorned with a simple square ruby, set perfectly into the gold. He felt proud to be wearing it. To be this young and able to forge his first ring was very rare.

Then the sun disappeared behind the horizon and everything became black.

When he opened his eyes the scene had changed. All he could see was blond hair. It was tickling his nose as he drew in a breath. He slowly ran his hand through the blond locks to feel its silky texture. Inhaling deeply he caught her scent. She smelled like fresh apples and rain, his favorite things. He shifted his wings which were wrapped around the woman lying on top of him, she stirred and the blond hair rose. The light from the fireplace flickered in her sea blue eyes, staring lovingly into his. He felt a deep feeling of protection and love as he smiled at her. He was rewarded by a slightly rosy cheeked smile in return. She leaned over to kiss him but right before they connected the scene changed again.

Next he was kneeling in front of an old man with a long white beard, wearing a white robe. They were standing in the center of a large circle composed of eighteen individuals. Behind them stood a crowd of people, filling the entire hall to the brim. He felt nervous being in front of all these people. He glanced to his left and his gaze connected with a pair of sea blue eyes belonging to a woman with blond hair. She smiled reassuringly back at him and he immediately calmed down.

Then the man with the beard started to speak. It wasn't English but he still somehow understood perfectly what the man said._ "Jezzine of the Seventh Sun, I have chosen you to pass on the knowledge of our people. If you choose to accept this task you will become my apprentice at the White Archives, the great library of Allestia. Upon my death you shall take on the title of Keeper, and in doing so you swear to protect and uphold the greatest treasure of our civilization - our combined knowledge. Do you accept?"_ he said in a booming voice that reached every corner of the great hall.

Looking down intently on the smooth granite floor he said without any hesitation, _"I accept."_

The old man closed the small gap between them and removed something from his neck. _"Then may you hold the key to the White Archives until one day when you will pass it along to its next Keeper,"_ the man said and slipped something around his neck.

Still looking down on the floor Harry could clearly see the purple cylinder gleaming in the light. It was connected to a chain made out of a bright metal, almost silver colored but with a light hint of gold.

_"Now rise, Jezzine of the Seventh Sun, future Keeper of the White Archives."_

As he rose the crowd started to cheer loudly. He didn't have time to look around before the scene changed yet again.

Now the images were speeding up, faster and faster they assaulted his senses. He had a hard time keeping up with them. All he could make out we're hazy colors and rare images. He saw a young man with blond hair and green eyes staring lovingly at him. Then it switched to another man with black hair and a cold expression on his face. Then everything went black, a feeling of despair and betrayal struck him like lightning. A woman's scream cut through the darkness and the scene changed again.

This time everything was so clear and it was as if he were actually there, living in that moment. The sun was shining and he was walking down a road. People passing him by waved and nodded at him in recognition. They were all dressed in odd clothing. It was something similar to a robe but not as bulky and loose fitting. These clothes looked like they could be used for any type of physical activity and still perform as every day wear.

The buildings around him didn't look like anything he had ever seen before. It wasn't that they were built in a special way more than the actual design of the buildings. All walls were completely white and every frame, window or door seemed to be made out of solid gold. He somehow knew that It wasn't gold though, but instead a rare metal that had only been found beneath the city and was the reason for its location. The metal could be used for almost anything, from weapons to buildings. It was very easy to manipulate and almost impossible to break once it hardened. And it only weighs a fraction of other metals.

It was such a nice day that he had decided to wear his best red dress, his favorite color. It wasn't as well suited as one of the regular outfits used by everyone else but he liked to be a little different sometimes. And besides, his work at the White Archives didn't require a lot of physical work.

He was just about to walk through the Garden of Flowing Lights when everything started to vibrate. It wasn't unusual to feel small quakes in the city so he didn't stop to see what would happen. It would pass in a moment anyway. Only this time it didn't. The shakes got worse and he almost lost his balance. People around him started to scream in terror and seek shelter where they could.

The shakes didn't stop and he had to grab onto a tree to steady himself. Then suddenly a bright light started to glow somewhere behind him. He turned around to see what it was but was blinded by the immense brightness. He felt a force hit him and his body leaving the solid ground under his feet. Before he could feel himself land on something everything became white around him and just... stopped.

-o-

With a jolt he was back in the dingy hotel room, still sitting on the bed. There was a small force of explosion coming from the jewelry in his hands. It pushed him back so he was lying on his back on the bed. The last thing he saw before he closed his eyes in exhaustion was a small golden ring flying across the room, hitting a mirror on the opposite wall and cracking it.

He hadn't seen Jezzine but he could feel that she was there, inside him. He suspected that he would always feel her presence from now on.

_"That was... intense,"_ he said in his mind before he fell asleep.

-.-.-.-

_His black hair felt soft and silky smooth as I slid my hand through it. The afterglow of our lovemaking still coursed through my body. I was just lying there, absorbing the heat from the fireplace and watching my lover._

_He was a prince of an unimportant country that had taken a liking to me. We met during one of his father's numerous balls. Everyone important was invited to these events and as the daughter of one of his richest nobles I was one of the first to receive one._

_The prince had been the perfect gentleman, playing the game to its fullest. He asked politely if I desired to dance and even kissed my hand at the end of it. He had his servants bring us drinks and various pieces of food that he insisted that I try._

_He even challenged a man who got a bit too frisky with my tail-end to a duel. After getting first blood by cutting off one of his opponents fingers within a minute of the duel starting, he asked if I wanted to retire to a more secluded place 'away from all this barbaric nonsense'. I agreed and he brought me to his room._

_Now I'm lying here, watching the life fade from my lover's eyes, still grasping the knife I had plunged straight into his heart as we climaxed together._

-.-.-.-

-o-

Nichole Richards was walking briskly down a corridor with a file under her arm, her high heels making rapid clicking sounds on the polished floor. She briefly considered removing her shoes to be able to walk faster but dismissed it as she was already halfway to the elevators now.

She rounded a corner and saw a man enter one of the elevators. Being in a rush she quickly set off towards the closing doors and yelled, "Hold the elevator please!"

A gloved hand exited the doors at the last moment, making the doors slide open again. She hurried to get inside but her heel got caught in the gap between the elevator and the floor, making her trip. A pair of strong arms caught her and she found herself staring at the chest of the man who had stopped her fall. Four gleaming silver stars caught her eyes and she quickly backed away from the man. Embarrassed over the situation, she straightened her skirt and looked down.

"I'm sorry General, sir. Thank you for holding the elevator," she said in a low voice, still not meeting his eyes.

"That's quite alright, miss," the General said in a strong voice.

As the doors clicked shut he bent down and picked up the file she had dropped. He held it out to her and asked, "What floor, miss?"

Externally she had composed herself; showing nothing but professionalism, save for a slight pink color to her cheeks that gave away her embarrassment. Internally though, she was freaking out, she had tripped over a General for god sake - a General!

She reached out and grabbed the file. "Thank you again, General. Top floor please," she said in a more stable voice, her words flowing like a melody once again.

"Going to see the boss, eh? Me too," he said.

She only smiled and nodded in response. He pressed the button for the top floor and they ascended In silence.

As they rode she thought over what had happened. The situation was more dire than she had first imagined. Everyone here at Rosegate knew about the legend of Allestia, but that was just it, they thought it was a legend and nothing more. When she received the classified file detailing the imprisonment of nineteen individuals, stemming from the fabled city, she knew that at least part of the legend was true.

She had dispatched the team in Venice right away on the order from her boss. While waiting for their report she had read the file in detail. When she finally received word from the team the news was not good. Her boss had told her to let him know as soon as she knew something and that was what she was on her way to do right now. Even though she knew the lines in here were completely safe she still decided to go and tell him in person. This was the kind of thing that needed to be shared face to face. If the report and the classified file were accurate, and she had no reason to believe otherwise, they were in deep shit.

A soft ping signaled the arrival of the elevator and the doors parted. The General bowed his head and held out his arm, letting Nichole go first. She smiled gratefully and exited out into the office of her boss' secretary. The office was very sparsely decorated with only the absolutely necessary items present. Nichole knew her boss wanted it like that, efficient to the limit and without any leisurely distractions. 'We are here to do a job, a damn important one but a job nonetheless,' was what he used to tell new, and sometimes old, employees when he thought they weren't performing well enough.

A pretty young woman that Nichole had only met twice before greeted them from behind her wooden desk. She was new, employed only two months ago, and Nichole couldn't quite remember her name, Katelyn? No, Catherine? Her boss was infamous for firing his secretaries on a regular basis. There always seemed to be something wrong with them according to him. Lazy, sloppy, inefficient, pregnant, overweight, kleptomaniac, too formal, too informal, there wasn't an excuse that he hadn't used.

Nichole had stopped learning their names long ago because the next time she would visit this office there would always be someone new behind the desk. This one, however, had lasted almost twice as long as the usual ones did so maybe it was time to learn her name. She decided that if she was still there the next time she came around then she would ask her name.

"Miss Richards, General Cooper, Mr. Gaines is expecting you both. Just a moment and I'll tell him you're here," the secretary said.

She pressed a button on a device on her desk. "Mr. Gaines, Miss Richards and General Cooper are here, shall I send in the General first?" she spoke the microphone on her headset.

There was a moment of silence then she spoke. "I see, right away sir," she said and released the button.

She looked a little uncomfortable when she spoke next, "I'm sorry General. Mr. Gaines wants to talk to Miss Richards first. Feel free to take a seat while you wait. Miss Richards, go right in."

Nichole knew that what she had to say was very important and couldn't really wait but she still felt a little awkward that the General had to wait. She smiled awkwardly to the General and waved the file in her hand. He just smiled in understanding and took a seat in one of the leather chairs dedicated to people waiting to speak with Mr. Gaines.

Nichole walked through the polished wooden doors leading into Mr. Gaines office. It always was a little strange walking through these doors. They were one of the very few made out of wood in this entire facility. You got used to the bare metal after a while and seeing something else became outside of the norm.

Something else that was not part of the norm was seeing a window and Mr. Gaines office had one of the biggest in the entire facility. The entire wall behind the desk was a window with an image of the New York skyline. She knew it was artificial and not real, actual windows would be improper and only serve as a security risk. Still, if you could look past that then this was as good a view as any real window would provide. It was one of the very few leisurely items that decorated Mr. Gaines office.

The man himself sat behind his desk, finishing up a phone call. Nichole decided to take a seat while she waited for him to finish. He looked exactly the same as last time she saw him. Short dark hair with only a slight hint of gray starting to form on the sides. Hard, brown eyes that demanded respect from anyone they landed on. He was a tall man, she knew. Even as he was sitting down he was almost a head higher than her and she was considered tall. His intimidating height together with his no-nonsense approach was the reason he had risen so high in rank. Almost no one dared to cross him.

He was wearing a black suit that only accentuated his already impressive build. The suit bulged slightly on the right side of his chest where Nichole knew that he was carrying a gun. A standard issue 9 millimeter Beretta M9 that everyone in the facility got and were required to have on them at all times, even while sleeping. The only time they were allowed to remove them from their person was when taking a shower and then no more than two meters within visual sight. Protocol and all that.

She had one too, a Glock G26 strapped to a thigh holster. It was a smaller alternative offered to women to use as she did, with a thigh holster. Most chose to carry the larger, bulkier, gun in a hip holster though. It was uncomfortable, knowing that everyone around her was armed, but she also knew that it was necessary considering what they did and their location.

Mr. Gaines finished his call and immediately started to speak to her.

"Nichole, good that you came in person. We have things to discuss. But first, what did the Venice team find?" he asked, his voice strong and direct.

She handed him the file and he started to flip through it right away. She knew that he expected her to tell him about it in addition to reading the file so she started to tell him what she knew.

"The team arrived on location and found an abandoned camp. The prison had been breached and the prisoners gone. Traces of magic were found all around. The ones who freed the prisoners were magical and I'm guessing that is how they were able to work so fast. The team reports that the camp can't have been more than a week old, two tops. The details are in the file," she said.

"They also found tracks leading off west of the camp. Due to magical travel methods a deviation like this most likely means that one of the prisoners broke off and ran away for reasons unknown. They also found magical damage along the path, adding strength to that theory," she finished. It was a brief but accurate summary of what the file said.

He was still flipping around in the file and she waited patiently for him to finish. After a few minutes he put the file down and looked at her. They had been working together for a long time that she already knew what he wanted. When she brought him reports he would often ask her opinion on what she thought about the situation. She tried to keep silent but his gaze penetrated her and she couldn't stay quiet.

"I know you want to know what I think but I can't tell you anything. A few hours ago I didn't even know this was real. I thought Allestia was just a legend. A glorified story of why we are here today and why we do what we do," she said.

He watched her for another moment then spoke, "Oh it's real alright. I didn't know about it either but after we last spoke I made a few phone calls. It appears that all the higher ups knew about it. I think I almost got fired after giving them a piece of my mind on why you don't let things like this sit in a corner and collect dust. Their excuse was that the less people that knew the truth the safer it would be. Sound thinking if it weren't for the fact that this happened," he said and gestured to the file on the desk.

She just shook her head in disbelief. "So you're telling me that the story of how this organization started is true? And the events of 1588 were real?" she asked, having trouble believing what she was hearing.

"I'm afraid so," he said. "This could've all been prevented had we known about it. We could have relocated the prisoners to a safer location instead of relying on ignorance of the truth to keep them locked away."

"But if the legend is true, could we really have done that? The legend tells of infinitely powerful beings, impervious to all conventional ways of killing. Some even go as far as saying they are immortal. I'm assuming these beings are the prisoners mentioned in the report?" she asked.

He nodded while looking at a picture on his desk. A little girl riding on a large dog. "Yes, one and the same," he said and looked from the picture back at her. "But the legend also says it was mostly luck that we managed to imprison them. While luck certainly was a factor, it wasn't nearly as big as the legend hint at."

Here he opened his desk and took out an object. At first glance it looked like a regular black police baton. He handed it to her and she examined it closer. On the end of it there seemed to be a metal canister of some kind, blending seamlessly with the handle. At the end of it, the poking end so to speak, was a strange drawing, jagged lines set in a triangle.

"What is it?" she asked.

"That's the reason we managed to capture them in the first place. I haven't been sitting idle since we spoke. I had Christen dig out all old notes on the events of 1588 and the century after. This is what she came up with. Of course it didn't look like this back then but the function should be the same," he said.

Christen must be the name of his secretary, she had to remember that.

"And what would that be?" she asked cautiously.

"Negating their power. Aim the baton at one of them and press the button on the handle. That drawing on the end is apparently a rune that saps their power when it comes in contact with them. I don't know exactly how it works but the notes say that's all it takes. I sent all the notes down to research and this is what they made of them," he said and reached out and grabbed the baton again.

"They added a new little feature," he said and pointed the baton at a painting on one of the walls. It was a painting of a ship at sea and Nichole thought it was kind of ugly.

He pressed the button on the handle and the bottom inch of the baton shot off. It was still connected to a wire that extended out from the canister. It hit the painting and stuck to it with a pair of sharp points that had extended when it shot away. Mr. Gaines pressed the button once more and there was a hissing sound coming from the painting. The edges around where the rune had stuck started to turn black and smoke started to rise from it. After roughly ten seconds of holding the button the painting caught fire. Here he pulled sharply on the baton and the rune came loose from the painting, rolling swiftly back into the canister.

She just watched the painting burn to ash. That was indeed a powerful weapon. The rune would sap their power and then secondary function would kill them, or at least severely incapacitate them.

"It sends a current twenty times stronger than a regular stun gun. According to the notes Christen found these beings live through other humans, using them as hosts, and cannot be directly killed, so this wouldn't actually kill them but it should make short work of the current host they are using," he said and watched Nichole for any reaction. She was still watching the painting burn.

"Company Christmas gift," he added. It snapped her out of her thought process and she looked back at him. "I never really liked it but they insisted I hang it up," he continued.

She almost snorted but caught herself and managed to make it sound like she was clearing her throat. Of course he didn't like it - he didn't like anything considered art. Getting around having to hang it up by burning it was such a typical thing he would do. She could only imagine the face of the guy that issued the company Christmas gifts when Mr. Gaines told him why it wasn't hanging in his office anymore.

"It has two charges before it needs to recharge. Just pull the cap on the backside and plug it into a regular outlet for an hour," he continued to explain.

Why was he telling her how to use the thing? It wasn't like she would need to… wait… no…

He put it on the desk in front of her and gave her a wicked smile when he noticed that she understood what he wanted from her.

"This one is yours," he said.

She stared at it with wide eyes and shook her head. "No. No no. No. You're not getting me out in the field again. No way. No," she said and stared up at his smiling face.

"No no no, _no. _It's not happening. No," she added when he didn't respond to her objection.

"Only eleven 'no's?" he asked her, still smiling at her.

"You can't be serious. I haven't been in the field in years and you know that," she said, still protesting.

"Ah c'mon Nichole, you have the training and all you need is a few days to get back in shape,"

She shook her head firmly, "No I can't. Mr. Gaines it's just no-" she started to say rapidly but was cut off.

"Don't call me that while we're alone. I'm sure you remember my name," he cut in.

"-_Stephen._ It's just not possible for me to go back out there. I've been away from it for too long. My work is with communications now," she explained in a slower tempo, trying to make him understand.

His expression grew serious and he stared right into her eyes. "I need you Nichole. I need someone I can trust and that I know can do the job. You have the training and I know I can trust you with anything," he said in a serious voice.

She closed her eyes so she didn't have to meet his gaze. "But-" she started.

"Please, Nichole, I really need you for this. There is no one else I would choose. If not for me, do it for Max and Thomas, they wouldn't want you wasting away in front of a desk," he said, his voice pleading but still strong.

She froze at the mention of those names. How dare he use them against her. That wasn't fair and he knew it.

"How dare-"

"Tell me it isn't true and I'll drop it."

Of course she knew it was true, but that wasn't the point. Bringing up the past like that was like a slap in the face.

They had once been a part of the same team twelve years ago, them, her and Stephen. When the team first formed it had been instant success. They had never met each other before but they worked so well together that they immediately became good friends. Max and Nichole had even gotten engaged in secret, only telling the others of the team, knowing they would keep it to themselves because regulations would never allow it. They planned on quitting together and getting married one day. Fate, however, as it sometimes does, had other plans.

Their team were only used for stealth and covert missions. One day when they had been out on a mission to assassinate a high value target there had been an accident. The intel they received had been inaccurate and it had led to the deaths of Max and Thomas. She and Stephen had barely escaped.

After that she couldn't bring herself to continue doing missions. She had been severely depressed with grief and given an extended leave of absence. She had consumed heavy doses of alcohol and It had almost killed her at one point.

She survived though and decided to quit drinking. The next day she had filed her termination papers. She couldn't go back to work for people she no longer trusted. However, Stephen had stepped in and forced her not to quit. He had gotten her a job in the communications department instead and she found that she liked it there. She was left alone to work In silence and no one bothered her.

Stephen had stayed on and done a few more missions but in the end he couldn't keep going. It just hadn't been the same without the team. Instead he had switched to the political side and quickly risen in rank. Now he was in charge of all operations involving Rosegate. It had been a relief for Nichole when Stephen had been promoted. It meant that the people responsible for the death of her friend and lover were no longer in charge.

Still she didn't want to go back into the field. She found herself liking her job in communications and had risen so far that she was now in charge of mission intel, the thing that had caused her so much grief. It had been good for her, knowing that the same mistake that had killed her teammates wouldn't be repeated.

Now though, he was asking her to get out there again. And the mission wasn't exactly made for easing back into things. True, the elements that caused her distrust was now gone but still. Stephen had quickly replaced most of the staff once he got in charge. Almost none of the people working when the accident happened were still assigned to Rosegate. They had all been terminated or transferred.

But to go out there after this long? Could she really do that? She did love her work back then. The excitement of almost getting caught, performing impossible tasks, the feeling of righteous justice she got when they captured a target, the rush of adrenaline right before a kill. She did miss all those things, but that had been together with her team. Together with them she felt that there was nothing they couldn't do, that they were invincible.

But perhaps it was time, time to let go of the past and move on.

She slowly nodded her head, eyes still closed. "I'll do it," she said. "But not for you. I'll do it for myself… and Max. You are right, he wouldn't want me to just sit on my ass and get fat," she added and looked him right into his eyes.

He nodded and smiled at her. "Great! You'll chose your own team of course," he said and opened another drawer in his desk. "These are all the information we have on our targets and their abilities," he said and put a stack of files in front of her.

She flipped open the top one and read the first few lines.

Name: Tiennen of the Ninth Moon

Sex: Male

Preferred Host: Mixed

Power: Illusion and Manipulation

"Study them closely. Show your team if you trust them. Then burn them and scatter the ashes," he continued.

She nodded slowly, still reading the file. There wasn't much to go on in there since their targets could essentially be anyone. Tracking them would be very hard.

"I suggest checking with the magicals if they know of anything," he said.

"Already on it. I ordered our sources affiliated with the magicals to silently inquire about anything happening in northern Italy. I don't think it will give us anything though. They seem preoccupied with something else," she said, picking up the next file to read.

He grinned at her. "That's why I love working with you. You're so damn effective. The second thing I want you to do is check up on the one running away. If you manage to capture that one it might lead you to the rest," he said.

She just waved off his compliment and got up. She had a lot to do now. She had to find a suitable team by tomorrow and she needed to get out all her old gear. She took the files and the baton under her arm and started to move out of the office.

"I'll keep you updated on my progress," she said and opened the door to leave.

Before she had time to close the door thought he spoke again, "Miss Richards."

She turned around to see what he wanted. She smiled inwardly at the use of her last name. Always the professional businessman when someone else could hear him.

"Please send in the General," he said.

"Yes Mr. Gaines," she answered.

* * *

**A/N: **I've introduced another perspective in this chapter and i hope it doesn't get confusing down the road. It's something i've never tried before. The chapter's a bit longer than i'd like but it didn't make sense to cut it in two.


	6. Chapter Five - Coming Together

**Bygones Reclaimed**  
Chapter Five - Coming Together

Mark Alden was one of the many ministry employees whose work the general public felt was a waste of time and resources. Mark knew better though and felt that the job he did was very important. Unfortunately, many weren't as serious about it as he was and that made it harder than it should have been for him to do his job.

He was a part of the Magical Law Enforcement department and by that alone he thought that people would have a bit more respect for his position. The work he did entailed cooperating with the muggle authorities, without their knowledge of course, to identify magical crimes against muggles and forward them to the Aurors.

However, in this day and age with all the pureblood supremacy going on in the ministry most everyone scoffed at him when he told them what he worked with. He suspected that the only reason he still had this position was so the Minister could say that he cared about the muggle's wellbeing.

That he was one of the few in the ministry ranks that knew how to operate some of the muggle technology didn't help either. People labeled him as a 'muggle lover', which in itself wasn't a bad thing, according to him. Unfortunately the people in charge didn't share his sentiment on that.

As it were, he had just identified another possible case where a wizard had used magic to rob a muggle store and was on his way to report it to the Auror department.

Knocking on the door to the office of his supervisor, he waited in silence to be let in. This was the worst part of the job; passing on the information. His supervisor was one of those that didn't believe that his position was needed and would most of the time just dismiss his findings, saying with a sarcastic tone that the muggle's could take care of their own, which he knew very well wasn't the case when magic was involved.

He heard his supervisors muffled voice telling him to enter and pushed open the door.

"What do you want this time, Mark?" his supervisor said, not even bothering to look up from the paper he was reading.

"I found unmistakable proof of a wizard robbing a muggle jewelry store. A security tape, showing a robed and hooded man clearly using a stunning spell against a muggle security guard. The muggles think that it was some advanced stun gun so we won't need to involve the obliviators. The wizard got away though," he said, trying to explain as much as possible before his supervisor started his spiel on why they couldn't spare the resources for this kind of thing.

And true to form, it played out just like he expected it to.

"Mark, you know that we don't have the resources to babysit the muggles. They can take care of themselves," he said, still not looking up from the paper.

"But sir-"

"No. Send it to the daily prophet and have them post the picture of the robber if you want to help the muggles so bad. Maybe someone will recognize him At least then it's not our resources being wasted." he said with finality in his voice.

"Yes, but sir-" he tried again.

His supervisor lifted his head from the paper and glared at him.

"Mark, I have more important things to do. Please leave my office now."

Knowing that there was nothing else he could do, Mark just nodded, turned around and left without saying another word.

He hated that man. Couldn't he see that they had a responsibility to uphold? At least there might be a chance that someone recognized the perpetrator in the paper. That's what he told himself as he sent the owl to The Daily Prophet with instructions to print a wanted notice in their next issue.

-o-

Hermione threw herself down in her usual seat at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall, banging her overstuffed book bag hard in the process. It had been over a day since Harry disappeared and no one seemed to be doing anything.

Okay that wasn't exactly true in its strictest form. A castle wide search had been going on since she had shown the note from Harry to Professor Dumbledore, and every student from fifth year and up had been excused from classes that day so they could search. It was pointless though, she knew he wasn't in Hogwarts anymore. The note had said as much.

She had told Dumbledore that he was long gone but all he'd said was for her not to worry, that Harry would show up soon and everything would be back to normal. She had to reign in her temper when she told him that was probably the reason he left in the first place.

The whole day she had followed two steps behind Professor McGonagall, trying to make her understand and get her to convince Dumbledore to involve the ministry in the search. It was only a matter of time before Fudge was informed anyway, what with Dolores Umbridge on the prowl for anything that wasn't ministry approved.

Her first thought when she saw the note had been that Voldemort had made his move and managed to abduct Harry somehow. He wouldn't just leave like that without explaining himself. Leaving a note like that wasn't like Harry at all.

Then Cho had let her read the letter he left for her and Hermione knew that it couldn't have been Voldemort. Why would he have bothered with a letter like that? Sure it could be an elaborate ruse to make it seem like Harry had left willingly but she doubted it. No it wasn't Voldemort, she was sure of it, but it was probably something else.

Sitting in the library with Ron just a little while ago, she had told him her theories, but he had just stared at her in response.

"I agree that I was worried when I found the note, but blimey Hermione, you're overreacting. He probably just wanted some time alone. Dumbledore'll find him, you'll see," Ron said and returned to drawing a crude picture of a racing broom on a piece of parchment, the usual way in which he utilized his time in the library.

"The man isn't infallible, Ron," she said and huffed at his apparent disinterest in his best friends wellbeing.

He had just looked up at her again as if she had grown a second head. "Sure he is. He's the leader of the light."

She slammed her book closed, prompting Madame Pince to shush sharply at them from her spot behind her desk.

"How do you explain Tom Riddle then?" she hissed at him, narrowing her eyes slightly.

"You-know-who? What about him? You can't seriously be blaming Dumbledore for him."

"Remember second year and what Harry told us? Tom Riddle was the one who originally opened the chamber of secrets and fooled everyone, making them believe it was Hagrid who did it, right under Dumbledore's nose," she said while shoving her books forcefully into her bag.

"Yeah so? That was different. Dumbledore couldn't have known that the bloke would grow up and become you-know-who," he said.

She stood up with such force that the chair she was occupying slid back a few inches, making loud scraping noises on the stone floor. Madame Pince shot daggers at them with her eyes and started to make her way towards them.

"I agree, but that wasn't my point. For a man you deem infallible he sure missed a lot of signs. Maybe you should look up the word," she told him and stormed briskly out of the library, expertly dodging Madame Pince by weaving through all the tables and bookshelves, leaving Ron alone to suffer her wrath.

Now she was here, sitting in the great hall, supposed to eat dinner but finding no appetite whatsoever. Her friend was missing and no one was doing anything serious about it. She banged her fist on the table in frustration, startling a few second years close by.

She knew she hadn't been fair to Ron earlier but she was just so frustrated. And him acting like there was nothing wrong just sent her over the edge. She drew in a deep breath to calm herself. It worked somewhat.

An owl landed on the table next to her and she jumped in surprise. She recognized the Daily Prophets logo on the scarf around the owl's neck. Just the Evening Prophet being delivered; she had completely forgotten about it in her frustration.

Whereas many students subscribed to The Daily Prophet itself she was one of the very few who also subscribed to The Evening Prophet, the papers evening edition. Most of the time it was only filled with gossip columns and letters to the editor; it was very rare that it contained any real news. But sometimes, on rare occasions when something important had happened during the day it would be features in it, and that was the reason she subscribed to it. She would skim through it during dinner and then let Ron read the comics at the back of the magazine.

Today she didn't feel like doing that though and tossed it aside after giving the owl its customary treat. Deciding that she was only hurting herself by not eating she pulled a few sausages and potatoes onto her plate, idly picking at them with her fork.

She glanced at the paper as she ate. It was still rolled up and she couldn't really make out anything. One word stuck out to her though and made her frown. Rolling out the paper her suspicions were correct. It was a wanted notice.

'Very strange,' she thought, furrowing her eyebrows. There had ever only been one wanted notice before in the papers and that was in third year when everyone was looking for Sirius. It still popped up from time to time but the hysteria had mostly died down since then.

This one wasn't for Sirius though.

_WANTED_

_Unknown wizard robs muggle store. (See attached photo.)_

_If you recognize this wizard please contact the Auror office immediately._

Strange, since when did the ministry put out wanted notices on common thieves? And the picture wasn't much to go on. A robed and hooded man running through a store, almost getting caught on his way out. The unmistakable flash of the stunning curse at the end of the sequence told her that, yep, it was indeed a wizard.

She was about to dismiss it as a weak attempt of the ministry to increase their effectiveness in catching criminals when she noticed something. It was very small and she had to watch the sequence over and over to be sure of what she saw. When the security guard pulled the thief back inside and when he twisted around there was a brief glimpse of a necklace around the thief's neck.

It looked eerily familiar. Where had she seen it before? The picture wasn't very clear and she had to cast an enlargement charm on the paper to see closer. When she did it hit her. It was the same necklace Harry was wearing when she had visited him the day before. At the time she had been so caught up with worry over his fever to reflect on why he was wearing it. Now though, she was sure it was the same one as in the picture.

Looking closer at the robed man throughout the sequence it all seemed to fit. The way he moved, how he held his wand, his build and height, it all fit. This was Harry, she was sure of it and it would take a lot to convince her otherwise.

The question of why Harry would be robbing a muggle store didn't bother her as much as the other, more prominent question, of what she should do with the information.

-o-

When Harry woke up late that evening the first feeling he got was a very urgent need to visit the bathroom. Getting out of bed, he groaned as he realized that he'd slept in his clothes. They felt itchy and had a strong smell of sweat. Having a more present need he ignored his hygiene for the moment and stumbled towards the bathroom.

He drew in a deep sigh as relief flooded him, only to jump in surprise a second later, almost crashing into the toilet.

"Finally up I see. It's about time."

He fumbled, trying to cover himself in a hurry, glancing over his shoulder as he did. "Jesus Jezzine! I'm taking a leak here, do you mind?"

Ignoring his discomfort she laughed at him. "Well hurry it up then, we have things to do," she said and shimmered out of view.

He still felt her presence though, like she was still standing behind him, watching him, almost in a physical way. He suspected that it might have something to do with the power bonding ritual, if he could even call it a ritual. Now that the groggy feeling of sleep had left him he could feel the difference throughout his body.

It was a strange feeling. Everything felt so much sharper and clearer, colors stuck out more in his mind and he picked up sounds that he had never noticed before. There was someone walking in the room above him, a child if he wasn't mistaking, and barefoot. Something was making soft rustling sounds from somewhere to his left. He pulled the shower curtain away and had time to see a small mouse rush into a crack in the wall.

_'So no shower then,'_ he thought

_"I wouldn't risk it,"_ he heard Jezzine say in his mind. That, too, was different from before. Where he could hear her words in his mind before he now got a sense of her underlying thoughts and feelings too. It was... strange to say the least, having feelings influencing him that he knew didn't belong to him.

_'Why am I feeling like this? Like everything is so... alive,'_ he asked her, having trouble finding the right word to describe it.

_"It's your body changing to accommodate my power. While your magic is mostly based on intent, that is you have to actively want it to do something, mine is more instinctual. You'll find that all your senses have become sharper as a result,"_ she said.

"This is going to take some time getting used to," he said out loud and finished up his bathroom business.

Once he left the bathroom Jezzine appeared in front of him, and somehow he knew that she was about to do that, so for the first time he wasn't startled by her sudden appearance. _That_ was definitely a change he approved of.

"Don't worry; it'll become natural once we start your training in using my power."

"Right. How long was I out anyway?" he asked, pulling out his wand and performing a Scourgify charm on his clothes. He was amazed when he saw the effect it had. Already his power was improving.

"All night and most of the day, It's already evening outside. Your body needed time to adjust. I helped it along as much I could, but forcing too much change too fast will hurt you," she said.

He scratched his head to remove an itch, wishing he could take a proper shower, and said, "Yeah I think you told me that already."

"Oh so you were listening after all. Not completely hopeless then," she teased, unable to keep a small laugh from escaping at his affronted look.

He shook his head in faked annoyance. "What have I gotten myself into?"

"You'll get over it," she said and smirked at him. Hearing his stomach give away a loud rumble she added, "And I guess we better get you some food. The power bonding wasted a lot of your energy."

He frowned in thought at that. "About that, did you see what I saw during..." he said and trailed off at seeing her scowl.

"Yeah, I don't know how that happened, it wasn't supposed to."

"So those images... were they your memories?" he asked, not sure if he were allowed to pry. From what he'd seen some of them seemed very private.

She sighed and looked a little sad. "Yeah, from before it all began."

He nodded his head in thought, wanting to ask something but not sure how to put it. He suspected he already knew the answer but wanted to know anyway.

"And the blond woman... Is she...?" he asked and pulled out the necklace Icienon had given them.

She watched the red ruby glimmer in the light and he felt her sadness at the dull intensity of it. "Yeah, that was Cilou," she said.

He didn't know what to say. In the dream, or memory, or whatever it was, he had felt such love and devotion for that person. He realized that it must have been Jezzine's feelings he felt and could only imagine her sadness, or even grief, at what had happened to Cilou. He didn't know what to say, nothing could really convey how sorry he was for her.

"She was very pretty," he said and as soon as he did he realized how lackluster it felt.

Jezzine seemed to get what he wanted to say though, which he shouldn't be surprised over, given their situation, he reflected.

"Yeah she was. I... miss her," she said. Drawing in a sigh and shaking her head, she continued, "But enough of that, we have things to do."

He nodding at her quick change of topic, she must have gotten good at controlling her feelings over the years, he thought.

"Like what?"

"Well for starters you should probably pick up the ring we forged," she said and motioned to where the ring had landed after the bonding completed.

Oh right, the whole reason why they did this in the first place. Between all the new emotions and sensations he had been feeling it had almost slipped his mind. Walking over to the mirror that the ring had cracked he examined himself in the broken reflection. His eyes widened when, to his surprise, he saw that he had short stubble covering his chin. Not believing what he was seeing he raised his hands to feel the sharp texture, making sure the mirror wasn't playing tricks on his eyes.

Seeing and feeling his surprise Jezzine decided to answer the coming question before he asked it. "Hormones," she said. "To properly accommodate the changes your body had to undergo it released high amounts of hormones in an attempt to accelerate your growth. This is one of the unforeseen consequences we talked about."

He just stared, dumbfounded by his reflection. No one in his year had started to grow facial hair yet. The earliest he could remember was a sixth year Ravenclaw that he couldn't remember the name of. Sure, Hogwarts wasn't the largest sample size by any rate, but still, it felt odd.

"At least we should be thankful that the other effects a sudden rush of hormones can cause haven't showed itself yet," Jezzine said.

"What're you talking ab..." he said while turning to her. Realizing what she meant a second later he trailed off, staring at her, as if seeing her in a different light. It was unintended but he couldn't help to notice how much more attractive she looked now. Especially how her curled locks, made from the darkest silk, flowed down her neck and settled right above her perfectly shaped...

"And there we have it," she said and snapped her finger right in front of his face.

Embarrassed over where his eyes had trailed, unintentionally or not, he cleared his throat and tried to apologize for the awkward situation.

"Ehm... that is... uh... what I meant to say is..." he tried.

His cheeks reddened when she snorted at his inexperience. "It's fine. I don't much care about it but you might want to keep a lid on it when we go out. Others might not be as understanding,"

Nodding but still feeling embarrassed, he lowered his gaze to look for the ring. With his sharper senses it wasn't hard to spot, a small golden glimmer at the edge of the bed told him that the ring must have bounced pretty hard off the mirror. Picking it up, he examined it. It looked just like the one Icienon had. A simple golden band with a square ruby set perfectly into the side. Marveling at its minimalistic features he couldn't help but feel it a very elegant design. He briefly wondered what happened to the silver brooch but chalked it up to one of the many mysteries of magic.

Expecting something to happen when he put on the ring he was sorely disappointed when nothing happened at all. He didn't even get the slight feeling of warmth that he got when he picked up his wand. It did fit him perfectly though, at least that was something. How ironic wouldn't it be if after going through the ritual to create the ring it didn't fit him.

"That was… anti climatic," he said, still looking at the ring, expecting it to do something, anything.

Jezzine huffed. "What'd you expect? Some grand show of power? I think we already had that yesterday, don't you? It's just a ring imbued with a tiny bit of our combined power."

"Right," he said. "What do we do now?"

"We get out of here and get you something to eat. Your energy levels are getting close to dangerously low," she said.

Strange, he didn't feel tired at all. In fact, now that he thought about it he couldn't really tell what he was feeling.

"I don't feel tired. And I just woke up," he said.

"That's because I'm blocking that particular feeling. You would be so exhausted that you'd fall asleep where you stand if I didn't."

Did he really use up that much energy in the forging? "Isn't that dangerous?" he asked.

"It can be, in most cases it is, but right now you need to eat or it will get worse pretty fast. While we have the luxury or blocking off your body's reaction to certain things we can't ignore it. After all, your body is trying to tell you that something is wrong and ignoring that is never good," she said.

Nodding at her words he said, "Alright, we go eat but after that we need to discuss a few things."

She nodded and shimmered out of view. _"Deal."_

-o-

It had been a long night but she was finally ready to set out. After reading through all the files Stephen had given her and after dusting off her old gear she had gone back to discuss the team she was supposed to lead. He had simply told her that she was free to choose her own teammates but that he had a few recommendations for her.

She had been out of the game for too long to know anyone personally that she wanted on the team so she was grateful for his input. Of course the only one that she really wanted to work with was him but with his current position that was not possible. Besides, having someone back at base and in charge that she knew was reassuring. He'd given her yet another stack of files, this time with information on operatives that was stationed on Rosegate and ready to go with a moment's notice.

Of course, things were never simple when it came to Stephen, which she was reminded of when she counted through the files. There were nearly sixty of them to choose from. Almost right away she had decided to keep the team as small and mobile as possible and going through all the files to find the best candidates would take more than a few hours.

Luckily, due to her work in communications, she knew most of the names already. She had personally talked to some of them on a few occasions, if you could call giving orders through a radio 'personal talk'.

In the end she had chosen three individuals based on her own experiences dealing with them over the radio and another that she knew nothing about. Stephen had pushed extra hard for her to choose this one, pressing the fact that the operative had never failed a mission. After reading through the file she had to agree that it was an impressive record.

The problem though was that there was next to no personal information about the operative, not a name or even a sex. In the field where the name should have been there was only a four digit number, 6174, and where the picture of the operative should be was only a picture of a strange coin with a rose and the same number imprinted under it.

In her branch anything unknown was a potential threat so the file made her uneasy but Stephen had insisted that she give this person a chance. She didn't want to but she had to admit that she was curious. As head of communications she thought she knew of all the operatives but apparently she was mistaken. Stephen told her that the operative only received orders directly and never needed to be updated through a radio.

She was walking down a metal clad corridor towards a conference room where she was supposed to meet the team now. None of them had worked together before but they were all highly qualified in different areas that Nichole thought complemented each other perfectly, excluding Mr. 6174 of course.

She had yet to switch into her combat gear and was still wearing the business suit and the high heels from the day before when she entered the conference room. She was surprised at finding three of the four individuals she had summoned all decked out in combat gear and ready to go.

The conference room was a large room, used to accommodate around 75 people at once, so seeing three individuals sitting at the large table on different sides was a bit weird. They were all sitting quietly but as she entered they all turned to look at her. She scanned all three of them in detail before speaking.

The one sitting closest was a man with blond hair and an impressive build. His name was Maxwell Zooc and according to his file he was a demolitions expert, famous around Rosegate for a job where he had to eliminate a terrorist leader without making it apparent who had done it. To solve this he had fashioned a tie and lined it with a volatile liquid that would ignite when it came in contact with water. After that all he had to do was smuggle the tie into the terrorists wardrobe and wait, letting the warm climate take care of the rest. And sure enough, two weeks later the terrorist was found dead in his car, his head lying on the seat next to him.

The file said that he was very clever but had a tendency to become reckless in certain situations. He smiled brightly at Nichole and gave her a subtle wink, which confirmed the other thing she had read in the file; Maxwell was a bit of a ladies man.

She let her eyes wander to the next person, a woman, sitting farthest away. She had short black hair and her eyes never blinked as she looked back at Nichole. Raquel Silva, a Portuguese beauty, sought after by many men as well as women. She was a specialist in infiltration and often used her beauty and charm to open doors. Her skills with a knife was legendary and her targets would often find themselves with one embedded in their back after falling victim to her charm.

This wasn't the reason Nichole had chosen her though. She had picked her because of her other talent as the best long range marksman working at Rosegate. Her weapon of choice, other than a knife, was a long ranged sniper rifle, which was apparent by the monstrosity lying on the table in front of her.

One of the requirements for working at Rosegate was the ability to identify a wide variety of weapons but Nichole could honestly say that she had never seen anything like that weapon before. The barrel of the rifle was longer than anything she had seen before; ending in a large cylinder that Nichole assumed was the silencer. The file said that Raquel liked to manufacture her own ammunitions but apparently that now extended to actual weapons too.

The last person was one who she had been a bit uncertain about. His name was Gavin Forte and his specialty wasn't to kill. The only weapon he carried, according to his file, was a silenced Desert Eagle handgun. At the young age of 21 he was one of the youngest operatives at Rosegate. He was, for a lack of better word, a genius. His best weapon wasn't guns or explosives, it was a computer. There wasn't anything that he couldn't hack into given enough time.

Stephen had snatched him up when he was arrested for causing the death of a US senator, at the age of 16. The senator had been dating his mother at the time and had, according to Gavin, been beating her. Nothing could be proved of course as the senator had strong connections and made all accusations towards him disappear. One night it had gone out of control and Gavin's mother had died. It had been labeled as an 'accident falling down the stairs' but Gavin knew better.

The next time the senator were holding a public speech the police guarding him received a message over their encrypted communications line that said that an assassination attempt was about to happen. Pandemonium had broken loose and everything had become a big mess. Police officers received different information and in the end the senator had ended up being shot by a confused police man, believing him to be the would-be assassin.

It had taken some time, but in the end they had found that someone had managed to hack into their system and send the conflicting information. They manage to trace it back to a diner just down the road. When the police stormed the place later that night they found Gavin sitting there at one of the tables, waiting for them, with nothing but a cup of coffee and a laptop in front of him.

She hated to admit it but she loved the irony of the situation. The kid sent out a warning about an assassination which in itself turned out to be the assassination. He had a sense of humor, she'd give him that.

He had been given a choice, go to prison or come work at Rosegate. Of course he had chosen the latter. That was the reason why Nichole was uncertain about him. His young age didn't much matter to her, she hadn't been much older when she starter, but the fact that he hadn't chosen to be there was what irked her. His motives were unclear.

However, she felt that his skills might be needed so she had no other choice than to pick him. She doubted her decision again when he looked over at her and quickly looked away again, apparently having trouble meeting her eyes. His mousy gray hair almost covered his eyes so she couldn't even be sure that he had been meeting her eyes in the first place. Compared to the other two he looked like a scrawny little kid. Which to some degree he was, she guessed. She had to remind herself that he was a trained killer, just as she was, even if he worked in a different way.

"Welcome. Please come and sit a bit closer," she said to them in a voice that despite its soft tone carried all over the room.

Only Gavin went to move right away. The other two sat back and continued to watch her.

"Sorry, doll, but when is the commander arriving?" said Maxwell after a moment.

That, too, was something Stephen had insisted on. Promoting her to the rank of Commander, saying that it would instill respect in her teammates. She hadn't been so sure about that but had gone along with it anyway.

"As I said Mr. Zooc, please come take a closer seat," she said in response.

He raised his eyebrows at her. "Ya? Commander? Is this some kind of joke?"

"No Mr. Zooc, now if you would be so kind, we have a lot to go over," she continued.

He shrugged his shoulders and got up to move. "Call me Max, ma'am."

Raquel still hadn't moved. She was still watching with her large, unblinking, eyes.

"Miss Silva, care to join us?" Nichole said.

"No," was all she said. She still got up and started to walk closer though, leaving her rifle on the table.

Instead of taking a seat though she walked all the way up to Nichole, standing a mere foot in front of her.

"You're no Commander," she said, still not blinking.

Nichole had expected something like this might happen so she wasn't surprised.

"Yes, I am. But you don't need to conce-" she said but before she could finish Raquel had turned around and started to walk away.

"Miss Silva, please come back and sit down," she said, not changing her tone of voice to be more authoritative.

Raquel just stopped, her back towards Nichole. She was just about to ask her to sit down again when Raquel spun around faster than she could blink. Something glinting in the light came soaring towards her and she only had a split second to react. Rusty she may be but she still managed to avoid the advancing knife without any difficulty, only twisting slightly to let it pass by her.

Reflexes that she thought she no longer had kicked in as she grabbed the knife that had lodged itself in the wall behind her and threw it back at Raquel. It was an easy throw that anyone with quick reflexes could dodge but it's purpose wasn't to hit its target, only to distract, which it did. Raquel dodged it expertly by sidestepping it but that was all Nichole needed to close the distance between them.

Raquel tried to change the direction of her dodge when she saw Nichole coming at her but was unsuccessful and could only shield herself as Nichole grabbed her and pushed her down backwards. Nichole followed in the fall and used Raquel to dampen the impact as she continued in a roll. Grabbing the knife that had stuck the edge of the table where she had been aiming she quickly turned around and swung the knife at Raquel's head.

Raquel, who was still lying on the floor, widened her eyes as she saw the knife coming straight towards her face and rolled sideways, only barely escaping the sharp blade. Coming out of the roll and sitting up she froze as her eyes met the barrel of a gun.

"Are we done, Miss Silva? I assume your curiosity in my proficiency has been settled?" Nichole said, holding her Glock G26 steady as rock.

Raquel only nodded quickly, not taking her eyes off the gun, startled by the speed in which Nichole had moved around her.

Nichole was just about to lower the gun when a voice behind her spoke. "You are out of shape Miss Richards. That will not work without this," it said. It was a light voice, neither feminine nor masculine.

Nichole, startled, spun around with her gun, aiming at the one who had spoken. A short figure stood in front of her, clad in a dark red robe with the hood up, holding out a gloved hand, grasping an all too familiar magazine. The figure was wearing a white mask under the hood so it was impossible to make out any features. On the left side of the mask was a drawing of a rose, it's stem starting all the way at the bottom and going up and ending with the head of the rose surrounding the small hole where the eye was.

"You do not feel the difference between a loaded gun and an empty one," the person said.

She stared at the newcomer for a moment then lowered the gun. She clicked the button on the gun that released the magazine and to her disbelief it was empty. She always checked her gun every morning. How the hell?

"The mysterious 6174 I assume? You're late." Nichole said as she reached out to take the magazine.

"Yes, Commander. No, Commander, I've been here since before the others arrived," the robed figure said.

She just stared, she hadn't seen anyone else in the room and she was sure she scanned everywhere. Who was this person? She couldn't see the figures face because of the mask and the bulky robe didn't give anything away either. She couldn't tell if it was a woman or a man. From the small hand that had held the magazine though she had to guess it was a woman but she couldn't be certain.

The others watched the robed figure too with different expressions. Gavin looked uncertain and quickly averted his eyes, just as he did before. Max looked intrigued but didn't smile anymore. Raquel still had wide eyes from before but quickly changed her expression into a scowl and stood up.

"Who the hell are you? I'm sure I was the first here," she said in a harsh voice.

Nichole guessed that her pride had been hurt by her failed attack and now it was threatened again by this strange individual. Time to step in.

"Calm down, Silva," she said. It was soft but held an authoritative edge that stopped the argument from escalating.

"I'm sorry, Miss Silva, if I offended you," the robed figure said.

"Now that we're all here can everyone please take a seat so we can go over why I summoned you here," Nichole said.

Raquel grit her teeth and looked like she wanted to continue to argue for a second but then turned around and sat down between Maxwell and Gavin, staring down at the floor in defiance. The robed figure walked over and sat down next to Gavin who looked like he wanted nothing more than to run away.

"Miss Silva," she said.

Raquel jerked and looked up, "What?" she snapped.

"Your knife," she said and held out the knife, handle first.

Raquel just huffed and took the knife.

"Right, now that we're all here why don't we start by introducing ourselves? My name is Nichole, you may call me by that name," she said and motioned to Maxwell.

"Names Maxwell, call me Max," he said and looked over at Raquel.

"Raquel," she said in a gruff voice.

"G-Gavin," Gavin said in a small voice, stammering slightly.

Everyone looked over at the robed figure now.

"I am known as 6174," it said.

Raquel huffed again while Gavin looked confused.

"Don't ya have a real name?" Maxwell asked.

"I am 6174 and 6174 am I," was the only response he got.

He scratched his head and shrugged. "Right, I'll just call ya Numbers, aight?" he said.

The robed figure turned his head at a slight angle, contemplating the name.

"That is acceptable," it said.

Nichole was glad that she wouldn't have to refer to the person as number. It felt disrespectful, even if she knew that _Numbers _probably wouldn't mind.

"Right, I'll go ahead and tell you that our ride is leaving in three and a half hour. That's the time I have to brief you on the situation, so please hold your questions to the end."

She started to tell them about their mission.

* * *

**A/N: **I'm told that I made Ron look too stupid in this chapter. That was not my intent and i just want to make it clear that this is not a bashing fic, It's just how i percieve him in canon. He'll have his moments later down the road.

And props if you recognize the number.


End file.
